The Coaster and the Shopper

Finally, here’s a couple of good ones to wrap up the year…

Video, December 23rd
Click here to watch a short video of Nina helping shop in Target and then Nina and I playing games in the car/parking lot while we wait for Mama!

Video, December 26th
Click here to watch a short video of what ends up being MOSTLY my finger. Sorry. But if you can look past my finger, you’ll see a little boy having the time of his life!

The Holiday According to Nina…

So each of these three videos takes place at a different house, and MOSTLY have to do with Nina. Enjoy!

Video, December 17th
Click here to watch a short video of Nina making some faces while at Grampa Dave and Grandma Marcia’s. For some reason a flaw in my encoding software made this video into slow motion, but you know you can see so much more of what is going on with her face that I just left it that way.

Video, December 20th
Click here to watch a short video of the kids at the Christmas lightshow that Grandma Sue took us to. At the end you’ll hear Nina say “bye bye owl!” followed by “bye bye baby,” “bye bye momma,” and “bye bye Daddy!”

Video, December 28th
Click here to watch Nina getting a free ride, a brief non-Nina glimpse of our band of merry geocachers, and then back to Nina boating around!

Chapman Christmas 2011, The Video

This one’s cute! It is 14MB in size though, so it may take a bit to download for you. Enjoy!

Video, December 15th
Click here to watch a long video of the East Side Chapman Christmas 2011!

Elmo’s Diaper Change

Alright, go waaaay back to December 12th, and we’ll work our way forwards. I might start posting multiple entries a day, so please always make sure you didn’t miss something, by scrolling down! Keep a special eye out for tomorrow’s video, it’s a great one!

Video, December 12th
Click here to watch a short video of Nina changing Elmo’s diaper. Please try to ignore my crappy Elmo imitation, I’m still working on it. I think I’ll probably perfect it when Nina’s about 27.

Nina Talks Up A Storm

Audio, November 14th
Click here to hear Nina trying really hard to tell us something! You may need to turn up your volume considerably, sorry. (I love when she tells me “no,” particularly the second, emphatic “no,” when I guess what she’s saying incorrectly.)

Audio, November 14th
Click here to hear Nina playing with Daddy when she should be sleeping! The volume on this one is a bit better.

Daily Sheet from Daycare, November 20th
Chelsea, Caregiver at Daycare: “Nina had a great day today! For art she colored on a big piece of paper with crayons! Every time I would draw something, she would say “no” and then color over it! She is so silly :-)”

Video, November 19th
Click here to see the kids practicing for the Christmas concert… This is a huge video, but probably worth watching for Nina’s speech in the middle. Warning, Ian hits Nina in this one, so it is rated PG for mild sibling abuse. (At the very end, she wants Mommy to get her crayons, if you’re wondering.) 10.2MB

Dialogue, November 20th
Nina: “One, murmph, go, blassoff! PSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

Halloween 2011

I told many people that I thought Uncle Chris would have wanted the kids to be able to have Halloween at home. Or that I thought it was important for the sake of the kids to be home for Halloween. What I didn’t figure out until I made this entry was that while the above is certainly true, it was also ME that needed to see the kids at home for Halloween. I needed to know that life in general could still be fun, even if maybe I wasn’t ready to have fun yet.

We start the night before Halloween. After the plane landed we drove around a bit looking to see if anybody had any pumpkins left, but all the stores were out. When we pulled up in our driveway, our neighbor Rob talked to me about Chris a bit, and when he heard we hadn’t found a pumpkin in time, he gave us a great one right off of his porch, ready for carving. What a brilliant neighborhood we’ve found, I love these people!

Halloween pretty much started the moment the plane landed on the 30th. Ian got this cool Halloween shirt from Grandma Sue! See this image larger.

Nina got a book! See this image larger.

Halloween day, the 31st… Ian and I carved the pumpkin that our awesome neighbors gave us. It was huge, God knows how much it cost them. Mental note: Make cookies for those people. See this image larger.

Ian drew up something that looked a bit like this. I approved after altering the eye-size to something a bit larger, and reducing the number of nostrils from 3 to 2. See this image larger.

Here we are on the porch, getting ready to go! See this image larger.

Ian strikes an action pose! See this image larger.

Cutest ladybug ever? If you’re on the fence, you NEED to see the video that follows these pictures! See this image larger.

They have treat bags now, let the hoarding begin! See this image larger.

One quick team chant before we go – “What do we want?” *CANDY!* “When do we want it?” *CANDY!* Close enough. See this image larger.

And…. they’re off! See this image larger.

Brendon and Jake next door paused for a quick picture. These really are two of the greatest boys I’ve met, so it is fantastic to see them being good friends with Ian, and hopefully someday Nina. Brendon, the older of the two, converses with you like you’re a comrade. Very cool. See this image larger.

Another shot… would be better in focus, stinkin’ phone. See this image larger.

Nina was a real go getter… in this case she got a little ambitious and went right into the house. We’re still working on boundaries. See this image larger.

Ian takes a SuperWhy-style flight to the next house! See this image larger.

November 1st, Ian got a nice cookie as well, and ate it all gone. See this image larger.

*I couldn’t possibly eat this beautiful cookie!* See this image larger.

*NOM NOM NOM DELICIOUS!* See this image larger.

Black frosting does not make for the best looking teeth. See this image larger.

Ok that’s just creepy. But he liked it, and it was nothin’ some toothpaste couldn’t fix! See this image larger.

November 2nd, went up to find Ian’s bed empty, and discover Goldielocks in a different bed instead… ours. Apparently it was just right! (And he was having nightmares or something.) See this image larger.

Video, October 31st
Click here to check out a very big, but very awesome music video of Nina on Halloween… this is a MUST SEE, sorry it is so big! 14MB

Video, October 31st
Click here to see Ian running around on Halloween. 4MB

Video, October 31st
Click here to check out a video of Ian squeezing a pumpkin seed. 758KB

Video, October 31st
Click here to see Nina practicing blowing out candles. 1.7MB

Summer Fades

October 24th, the day started like any other, except that when I gave the kids a bowl of cheerios, they situated themselves at a table in the sun room, divvied up the cereal without being asked to, and had a quiet breakfast. Within an hour or so, their Uncle Chris, my brother, was taken from us, and our lives and all the lives he touched, changed forever. See this image larger.

October 25th, Melissa packed up everybody’s stuff, organized and purchased the tickets. Within a day we were in Florida. She was brilliantly strong through this entire week and helped me immeasurably. I cannot thank her enough. Here Nina sits and waits for an evening snack, dressed in a really cute “Boo” shirt. See this image larger.

October 27th, I awoke to this sunrise at Joan and Don Dwyer’s condo. Dolphins frolicked in the waterway right outside the balcony. My Aunt Leslie and Uncle Gordon arranged for us to stay there; I’ll get into more detail in a moment. It was beautiful there, and not having to worry about a hotel and extra traveling helped us focus on what we needed to do. Thank you both so much! (And thanks to Joan and Don, as well!) This day was Chris’s “viewing” I think they call it. It was very hard to say good-bye. The video linked below was of Nina coloring at a restaurant on the way home. A difficult day. See this image larger.

October 28th, and Uncle Gordon’s postman hat became a fashion statement! See this image larger.

Yes, peekaboo, little one! See this image larger.

Ian gets in on the hat action! See this image larger.

Uncle Gordon took Ian and I down to the beach, he was brilliant with Ian in particular, who liked playing with him a lot. They played a lot of games and Ian was kept nicely distracted, which Melissa needed desperately, given that I wasn’t focusing too much on what was going on. Gordon also lent me some clothes which was a great help. See this image larger.

October 29th, in the morning Nina tried on my hat and shoes… didn’t fit! Go figure. Some great videos linked below show Nina babbling on the balcony about an owl, and playing peekaboo! See this image larger.

Aunt Leslie and Uncle Gordon came to the rescue for so many people in our family during this time… hosting us, comforting us, allowing us to rely on their strength. I don’t think I’d have made it through this time without their help. Unfortunately, Tara would end up in the hospital, making for a time when Les and Gordon could have used some of their strength back. Tara’s doing well now, but it was a very rough week for the Eaves family. Thank you all again for your help, I can’t say that enough. See this image larger.

My Aunt Millie read Ian a book on the iPad, keeping him entertained. See this image larger.

Sunset off of Les and Gordon’s front balcony. I saw a bird shape in the clouds, but it did not come out in a picture. See this image larger.

Nina peruses an issue of Glamour. See this image larger.

Honestly this is one of those moments that is too beautiful for words. I made a music video, linked below, of Nina playing patty-cake with my Uncle Ken… it’s a big video, but well worth a click. Uncle Kenny wrote “Thank you for letting me play with her, a moment that will not be forgotten.” While we’re on this subject, a day after we got home, Nina walked through our house doing the “roll it” part of patty-cake and said “Whargo?!?” (meaning “Where’d he go?”) She wanted to play again! See this image larger.

Nina snuggled up with Grandma Sue for a brief nap before we had to hop on a plane and head home. See this image larger.

A pelican or two at the airport wished us safe travels home. See this image larger.

Quietest, most peaceful flight ever on the way home… Ian and Nina both fell asleep within moments of take-off. See this image larger.

And they did not awaken until the plane started its decent in Michigan! There’s a brief video below that shows our four weary travelers, linked below. See this image larger.

Dialogue, October 26th
Ian: “Uncle Chris is my friend, and now I’m sad because he’s gone.”

Video, October 27th
Click here to watch a video of Nina doing a great job coloring. 2.7MB

Dialogue, October 27th
Ian: “I’m guessing ice cream is made out of ice and cream.”

Dialogue, October 27th
Ian, to my Uncle Gordon, who works as a mailman. The ellipses indicate where people started laughing so loud that he continued while ducking his face into his hands, embarrassed by the sudden attention : “Thank you, mailman… for the ice cream”

Video, October 29th
Click here to see a long but MUST SEE video of Nina investigating a fake owl. 9.3MB

Video, October 29th
Click here to check out a video of Nina peeking! This is a good one too! 5.2MB

Dialogue, October 30th
Ian: “God didn’t give me a sock power to let me to put my socks on!”

Video, October 30th
Click here to see a special music video of Nina and my Uncle Ken playing patty-cake! This is a big video, but it is really good, please watch! MUST SEE!!! 11.1MB

Video, October 30th
Click here to check out a video of my family of travelers! Very short video. 1.4MB

You Might Have Missed This One

I was playing with formatting and decided that because Melissa didn’t see a video, I had messed it up worse than I thought. So from now on videos and dialogue will be up at the very top or the very end of each entry, instead of between pictures. Sorry.

On a side note, if you see GREEN you know you’re looking at dialogue… you can’t click on that. ORANGE text is generally a link of some kind, like to a video or a sound file… or a bigger picture.

The video that was missed? Maybe you missed it too. Here it is again, it was a good one:

Video, October 10th
Click here to see this special music video of our apple orchard trip. This video is big but it does a great job of showing what a good time Ian had on this field trip! Check this one out if you can, please! 7.9MB

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.

Apple Orchard, Ian’s Class!

Alright, check back often, updates are all lined up.

Let’s start up with some of the videos I’ve been promising you from the last several weeks….

Video, September 26th
Click here to check out a video of Nina and Ian playing choo choo. 3.3MB

Video, September 26th
Click here to check out a video of Nina running around a park. She looks older again! Stop it! Also, at the end, you can hear Ian’s first close encounter with a squirrel! 5.4MB

Video, October 3rd
Click here to hear Ian, Nina and I babbling. 2.4MB

Video, October 9th
Click here to see Ian lead Nina to the front of our church for Children’s Time. 4.3MB

Video, October 10th
Click here to see this special music video of our apple orchard trip. This video is big but it does a great job of showing what a good time Ian had on this field trip! Check this one out if you can, please! 7.9MB

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.” See this image larger.

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! See this image larger.

Ian shoved a toy into this funnel to stop it up so he could fill it to the top. Smart kid! See this image larger.

Chillin’ with some goats. See this image larger.

*Yeah that’s enough of this, let’s get out of here.* See this image larger.

Later on, Nina is dressed up as a… alright you know what, let’s just say she’s dressed up! 😉 See this image larger.

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