Video
Click here to watch Nina yawn cutely on January 30th. You’ll want to turn your volume up so as to maximize cuteness. Then turn it back down so as to minimize irritation with whatever happens next on your computer.

Ian built this shuttle completely on his own. As in, one moment he was playing on his own, the next this shuttle came flying through the room at his hand. Pretty impressive. He’s four, mind you. Look at the tapered cockpit, the wing configuration and the tail section. I’m betting he’s got a good reason for the red part too. I seriously think he’s going to end up being an engineer or something. The guys on the Chapman side back as far as I can remember, and as I recall one of Melissa’s grandparents seem to have that as a sort of hidden talent, so who knows — might be in his genes. See this image larger.

Kid in destructive mood has excess energy to burn. Solution: Bang up these cookies for some ice cream… use your hammer. See this image larger.

He seems to be enjoying himself. While this was supposed to be for a batch of mint ice cream, that ultimately failed, so the cookies were preserved for a later batch. See this image larger.

On Mondays I’ve been trying to do something fun with the kids, particularly Ian. I’m not sure I need to explain myself on that — part of it is that this is what he was used to before Nina came along, and another part of it is that the entire day goes better when Ian is kept a little busy. So on January 31st, I put Nina in the sunroom, stepped outside onto the deck with Ian, and we tried to build a snowman. Only it turned out that there was only a light coating of ice with non-packing snow underneath. So… we built a snowman out of our grill. Hey, it worked. (Ian said it looked like a character from Thomas the Tank Engine.) See this image larger.

*No cavities, and your top teeth are coming in fine, hard to see in here, though.* See this image larger.

Video
Click here to watch Nina say “Hi Da Da!”

For Mommy’s birthday, we didn’t really take pictures like we did with the kids. Well, that and some of her birthday gift simply hasn’t happened yet because it has been earmarked for “a free day.” We don’t typically know what that is. So I apologize that there’s not much to say about this at the moment, but let it be known that we’re still working on that, and your family loves you very much, Mommy.

Melissa tries on a pretty scarf she received as a gift. From me she also got a necklace, some earrings, and as I said, some promised gifts that must be pursued when we have a moment to breathe. Sadly even as I write this, almost a month later, we haven’t taken the time to do so. See this image larger.

Mmmm… warm dryer. See this image larger.

Ian built a “road” out of books, cushions, blankets and more. See this image larger.

Nina waits on the road while construction takes place in the north-bound lane. See this image larger.

January 24th now, and Ian still is in the birthday mood. As you can see, there are 4 “candle” cheetos in his sandwich. See this image larger.

January 25th my home computer started a several day saga that had me driving back and forth to the Apple store like a mad man. One of the positive things to come out of this crisis was looking over and seeing Ian on one of the computers at the Apple store. See this image larger.

Still images cannot convey how his eyes darted around on the screen. The way his eyes traveled with his hand as he moused around to the buttons. Nina takes a peek too! See this image larger.

More than anything, he looked completely comfortable with what he was doing. I felt a bit of pride. FYI – several partial back-ups essentially saved me from complete disaster. I was able to recover about 2980 of the 3000 emails that became lost during what should have been a routine hard drive transfer. “Genius bar” my butt. See this image larger.

On the 28th, I asked Mommy’s attention, and she was rightfully a little frustrated as she stepped away from making dinner to see what I was talking about. There stood Nina next to me in the center of the room, only leaning on me a little bit, and standing up on her own a great deal. She wasn’t completely standing on her own, but it was progress. Like Ian on the computer, she seemed comfortable doing so. It was the start of a trend that lasted a couple weeks. Her speech got better, her walking got better. It was like a little leap forward. I can’t honestly say it feels like she is taking another leap at this moment, but perhaps she’s pausing for another major jump.

We got back from Grandma Marcia and Grampa Dave’s house on a Sunday, so the next day was Monday the 17th. So I made a family project out of hanging the mobile. You can sort of see Nina in that my iPad is propped in the background for her to watch. Ian helped me put the planets on! See this image larger.

Was he happy with the result? See this image larger.

That’s a yup. See this image larger.

The day before Ian’s birthday, here he is contemplating his old age, perhaps. See this image larger.

Melissa and I were pretty somber on this night, realizing his third year was over already. 2010 was such a tough year for this kid, I’m surprised when he gives us trouble, but I’m more surprised and proud of what an amazing trooper he has been through everything. See this image larger.

Still flying rockets! See this image larger.

So this is Nina with the remote control for the motorized solar system mobile. The first time she knocked the remote against the wall over her shoulder, I told her no and shook my head. Now she still does it and smiles at me, makes sure I’m watching. See this image larger.

You’re just lucky you’re cute! See this image larger.

She absolutely loves rolling around on Ian’s bed. It is a big mattress and low to the floor. See this image larger.

Mommy reads the kids a bedtime story! See this image larger.

Love this shot. They look like they’re really paying attention! See this image larger.

Here you can see Nina’s about to lose interest… See this image larger.

Ian looking at the reflection of himself in the camera lens. See this image larger.

Nina suggests another book. See this image larger.

That night Melissa somehow still found time to bake a cake for Ian’s birthday… this is it! I helped a little. It’s a rocket. And those are supposed to be little stars on the foil, and a cookie planet. See this image larger.

Before we begin celebrating Melissa and Ian’s birthday, I want to discuss some overall trends that happened around this time. Nina started to become more of a Daddy’s girl than before. As I said, it started around the time that Melissa had to open the Children’s hospital, but it developed into the kind of thing where I could get her to sleep at times when Melissa could not. We started jokingly calling me “the closer” because Melissa would feed her, and I would hold her afterwards for a little bit and put her down. I think it was just easier for her with me because she doesn’t think about feeding, I’m pretty boring, generally wearing something fuzzy, and let’s face it, I’m just flat out warmer from a temperature perspective. At the same time, Ian has become more of a Mama’s boy, at times not letting me near him. Also Ian started to go down the path of what they’re calling these days “The Spirited Child.” Just doing stuff to try our patience and test our boundaries. I’m mentioning all of this because bits and pieces of the above changed or evolved toward the beginning of February. As I’m sure I’ll mention, Nina also suddenly took huge strides toward talking and walking at around the third week in January.

So anyway! On January 15th and 16th we went over to Grampa Dave and Grandma Marcia’s so that we could celebrate Ian and Mommy’s birthdays!

January 15th, Nina curls up in a comfy chair! See this image larger.

And BOOM time to open presents already! Grampa Dave expressed doubt as to how well this present was going to go over. See this image larger.

It was a cool motorized planetary mobile!! Ian loved it immediately! See this image larger.

Picture him saying “thank you!” here from years of good parenting. I’m pretty sure he even said it, but PICTURE him saying it here, that’s the key. See this image larger.

Little girl loved the wrapping paper! (Such a cutie!) See this image larger.

Video
Click here to see Nina use a box as a step. Pretty smart if you ask me!

Somebody has blankies and pillows out already, must be getting late! See this image larger.

Video
Click here to see Nina playing with a gumball machine style toy.

Daddy continues the bunny-ear tradition… See this image larger.

Ian and Daddy read a book on the iPad while Nina crawls over to see what the fuss is about. See this image larger.

This was pretty cool… Nina wanted to see what was on the iPad screen so she stood up and peered over my shoulder! See this image larger.

Here she figured out that if she used a Vulcan nerve pinch on Cookielocks the bear, he’d fall over in a slump and there’d be room for her! Totally kidding. See this image larger.

Grandma Marcia rocks Nina to prepare her for sleep! See this image larger.

Happy birthday Mommy and Ian! NOTE: There will be another celebration in a few entries, don’t get confused! 🙂 See this image larger.

This is the second post today, be sure to scroll down if you haven’t been on in awhile!

The last couple times we went to the Villages we got everybody together for a good-bye dinner and it has been great to leave on a high note the next day. It was even better this year because we didn’t have to get anybody up at 5am to hop on a plane!

So here we are on the 30th, getting together for a fantastic meal! See this image larger.

Two-for-one margaritas had Nina feeling pretty happy! Oh wait, that was me. Nina was happy to see her Daddy kick back and drink some margaritas! Here she smiles with Mommy! See this image larger.

Ian gives Nina a little peck on the forehead, and everybody swooned! See this image larger.

Big smiles from Grampa Ray and Cousin Connor! See this image larger.

And then it was off to the square for dancing in the relatively cold Florida night! See this image larger.

Nina danced the night away! See this image larger.

A Village artist draws a cousin caricature! See this image larger.

Johnson/Kunze/Chapmans in the house! See this image larger.

Same idea! See this image larger.

Happy Kunzes! You should have seen little Kaylee boogyin’! See this image larger.

Happy Chapmans! And then it was time to go back to Grandma Sue’s and sleep — for 2 full days of travel was still ahead of our brave adventurers! See this image larger.

On the way back North to Michigan we stopped in a backwater town and ate at Waffle House. As this was Nina’s first Waffle House experience, I took a picture or two. See this image larger.

*I think Elvis just walked in!* See this image larger.

Local papers would report that one of the signs of the apocalypse occurred that night — Ian ordered pancakes at a Waffle House. See this image larger.

At one point Ian thought he was going to be sick. We gave him this butter dish to get sick into… instead he fell asleep on it. The miles slowly drifted by, as did the hours. Eventually we made it home. See this image larger.

And that was an interesting feeling, coming home. I don’t think the house we’ve lived in for the last few months felt as much like home as when we left it and came back.

For those of you wondering, would we drive it again? Absolutely. The kids were fantastic, and the stress and cost were significantly less than flying.

One more time, to make sure I covered everybody – thank you all for your hospitality and generosity!

We’ll leave you some of Ian’s hilarious zingers from the trip below, as noted in our phones, etc.

Dialogue
Ian, the night we left Nina to grab some dessert… just as we went through the doors of the ice cream shop – “I bet Nina’s crying right now.”

Ian, on the way to Great Grandma Betty’s – “Grandma Sue, your car is AMAZING!”

As I said in the captions earlier – He asked Great Grandma Betty to say “thank you” regarding a present… he did this before the wrapping paper even left the present.

During an ASPCA commercial on TV – “We have to save the puppy and the kitty!”

Ian’s ongoing nickname for Nina – “Nini.” I call her “Nina Nina jelly beana.”

Ian – “We have an enormous drive to Michigan.”

Ian on the way home – “Jingle go, jingle go, jingle all the way… (other lyrics) and open presents that you hid in the car!” (We had a couple presents in the car to make the trip more exciting… he imagined Santa thinking ahead.)

Ian – “Sometimes some puppies poop in the snow.”

Also on the way home, to Daddy – “You’re just not cool.”

We stopped at a Walmart so that Ian could go potty, and he refused to go. The potties were “bad” potties, the kind that auto-flush and scare him. When we finally got hom he pointed at our toilet and proclaimed “good potty.”

Ian, when we got home – “We gave our old house away to good people who didn’t have a house. Then we drove over to this one.”