Those Chapmans – Page 12 – Out Of Their Minds Design

New Month? Yes! New Year? Yes! Still Christmas? Yup!

January 1st, time for a trip to one of 60-ish pools in the Villages. Yeah, I looked that up. I’m good with the Googles. See this image larger.

Mommy takes Nina for a spin, while Grandma Barb does the same with Ian. See this image larger.

She’s already got the beginnings of a swimmer, in this pic. (Months later, she had a great time in swim class at the YMCA, but that’s a tale for when we catch up on the blog!) See this image larger.

A helping of noodle! See this image larger.

Nina’s confidence level around water makes me both thrilled and completely terrified. See this image larger.

Perfect image, destroyed by handrail! See this image larger.

Both kids love water! See this image larger.

I think the thing that I remember most about this part of the trip was Melissa’s grace with the kids. She stood there in the pool, quietly and gently helping Nina back and forth, smiling; they moved like partners in a slow dance. The act itself and Melissa were mesmerizing, and beautiful. A reminder from life of just how lucky I am. See this image larger.

Love you, girls! See this image larger.

One more swim! See this image larger.

Ian and I posed for some hilarious shots at Grandma Barb and Grampa Ray’s! See this image larger.

Some more hilarious than others! See this image larger.

It was around this time that I must have lost my brother’s watch, as it would later turn out that Barb found it in the recesses of this chair. I didn’t realize I had lost it until at the hotel on the way back up to Michigan; so locating it was not easy. Thanks Barb for checking around a bunch! See this image larger.

Trouble kitty adds to the fun… I’m sad to report that dependable, loving, and often drooling; more recently Trouble has gone from this world and will be missed. He was a really cool kitty. See this image larger.

My favorite shot of the bunch. I think you can tell I really love my son, and he really loves his dad. See this image larger.

Ian took this one with my camera, thus it is a little blurry! Overall, nice job, though, kiddo! See this image larger.

Nina gets ready for bed, to say so long to the first day of the new year! See this image larger.

Goodbye 2012

And now, the final entry for 2012… December in video.

Click here to see a whole lot of jingle bells, as well as some other tunes. Some notes: The first bit has Nina being pointed in our direction. You can sort of see when she realizes it is us! The next segment features Mommy asking Nina to sing the snowman song, which Nina does not agree to. The third segment shows Ian, front and center in dark blue. The fifth shows Ian again… he’s the one that doesn’t put his arms up at first, lol… he gives a really cute smile too, but the resolution in this video doesn’t quite do the trick, sorry. The sixth segment is Nina singing the snowman song. Enjoy!

December 2012 Dialogue and Milestones

Dialogue, December 2nd
Nina, showing Daddy her footie pajamas: “This is the whole body thing.”

Dialogue, December 2nd
Classic Ian: “You’re getting my vegetables in my food.”

Milestone, December 2nd Ian expressed an interest in keeping his car seat, even after he outgrew it, to save for his own kids.

Dialogue, December 8th
Nina, to Seth, our kitty ” Go away and don’t come back to my sauces!”

Dialogue, December 8th
Daddy: “What kind of shoes are those?”
Nina: “Mine!”

Dialogue, December 8th
Nina, looking out her window: “Snow!”

Dialogue, December 8th
Mommy: “Big cake or little cake on your birthday?”
Nina: “Big one… with sprinkles!!”
Daddy: “Do you want a big one so you can share it with your family?”
Nina: “No!!”
Mommy: “You’re going to eat it all?”
Nina: “Yup!!”

Milestone, December 10th Ian’s first wiggly tooth became wiggly.

Dialogue, December 10th
Ian opens a reese’s peanut butter cup, Daddy says: “Ian, I really like those.”
Ian’s eyes dart around, quickly sticks entire thing in his mouth.

Milestone, December 16th Nina woke up and skipped into our bedroom while I was getting dressed. She happily went to our bed, found Mommy to be gone (already downstairs) then ran around the bed to hug me. This is the happiest I’ve seen her wake up ever. She got a full night’s sleep.

NINA DAYCARE NOTES:

Daycare Notes, Monday, December 3 Nina’s caregiver: “Nina did an excellent job matching Uno cards by color! She enjoyed playing with flashcards as well. You know was a little more emotional than usual today. Nina also liked singing her ABCs really loud in the echo tunnel today!” (An overpass type tunnel on a walking path.)

Daycare Notes, Tuesday, December 4 Nina’s caregiver: “Nina had a great morning. She had a lot of fun cutting Play-Doh with scissors. She also worked her small motor skills by picking up bugs with tongs.”

Daycare Notes, Wednesday, December 5 Nina’s caregiver: “Nina enjoyed exploring all of our doctor toys and outfits. She enjoyed drawing snowflakes in shaving cream at the table. She did a great job taking turns with her friends when they played a game.”

Daycare Notes, Wednesday, December 5 Milestones Accident Report: “While riding a bike outside Newsbytes tipped over causing her to land on her nose she scratched the tip of it.” (The aforementioned “Rudolph” nose.)

Daycare Notes, Thursday, December 6 Nina’s caregiver: “Nina loved putting cookie sheets together this morning! She was really excited to glue our snow man together. Nina enjoyed playing with potato heads today.”

Daycare Notes, Friday, December 7 Nina’s caregiver: “Nina loved making a snowflake. She said ‘it tickles’ when I painted her hand. She had a blast running to find shapes in the class.”

Daycare Notes, Monday, December 10 Nina’s caregiver: “Nina had fun playing in the snow and tasting it! She enjoyed watching ‘The Grinch’ and eating popcorn with her friends.”

Daycare Notes, Tuesday, December 11 Nina’s caregiver: “Nina worked hard to shape her Play-Doh into a ‘ball.’ Then she used a cookie-cutter to make a snowflake! In dramatic play Nina put on reindeer antlers and started singing our Christmas song.”

Daycare Notes, Wednesday, December 12 Nina’s caregiver: “Nina had a lot of fun painting her Christmas angel. She also had a blast making snow angels with Miss Jillian.”

Daycare Notes, Thursday, December 13 Nina’s caregiver: “Nina was so busy cooking in dramatic play this morning! She enjoyed painting a candy cane. Nina had lots of fun at the Y today! She also enjoyed playing with little people in the dollhouse. The quote of the day on the door is from Nina.” (The quote was something along the lines of: “Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you, you must be on the potty.”)

Daycare Notes, Friday, December 14 Nina’s caregiver: “Nina enjoyed looking at lots of different things in the classroom with her color paddles! She looks through the blue, green, yellow, and purple paddles. During our walk outside Nina told her teachers that she would like yummy pears for lunch!”

Daycare Notes, Monday, December 17 Nina’s caregiver: “Nina saying the whole time should put our stomach together! (Check out the picture board for visual) Nina had fun doing a ring toss game today. She also played with ‘Baby Aiden.'”

Daycare Notes, Tuesday, December 18 Nina’s caregiver: “Nina was very talkative today! She loved making a snowman and singing “Frosty the Snowman” the whole time. It also made a tower out of Legos. She could not wait for tumble time!”

Daycare Notes, Wednesday, December 19 Nina’s caregiver: “Nina really enjoyed playing with magnets. When we found the letter ‘N’ she was so excited! She also had fun running in the indoor playspace.”

Daycare Notes, Thursday, December 20 Nina’s caregiver: “Nina was so cheery today, full of hugs! She had a lot of fun playing with the train set. She was very particular on matching all train sets.”

Daycare Notes, Friday, December 21 Nina’s caregiver: “Thank you for joining us for the Christmas party! Merry Christmas!”