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.