More Cool Sunglasses

Aunt Mary and Uncle Heath gave Nikola these red sunglasses as part of a nice surfer outfit. Now he can look as cool as Nina in her pink sunglasses.

The first photo is Uncle Mike's girlfriend, Yolima, holding Nikola after dropping by for a quick visit. My Mom (2nd photo) is also visiting for a week, and was more than happy to help me out with the kids while I completed some office work and house projects.

Office Family Picnic

Today we dropped by the playground area in Animal Kingdom. Nikola immediately took to this jeep. He seems to prefer being the driver to being the passenger. While spinning the steering wheel, he would bounce up and down just like he was four-wheeling.

Later this evening we went to Anne's office family picnic at the Willow Tree Cafe, a nice family-owned German restaurant in Sanford. The kids seemed to really enjoy it, especially the live band.

Morning Playground

Mornings at the playground are really nice before the daily afternoon heat arrives. We usually spend the afternoons doing indoor activities at home, at the store, or at an attraction. In these photos, Nina is enjoying the slide, and Nikola is following me around trying to have his picture taken. He moves so fast that my autofocus can't keep up, so a lot of the photos come out of focus. I find taking videos works better for him.

Inflatable Pool

The kids had a blast today in one of those cheap Wal-Mart blowup pools. Nikola did the first of what would be many fearless face first dives into the pool. He really keeps me on my toes.

Office Baby Shower

Today, Anne's office gave her a baby shower, and the kids were invited. They have never traveled this distance in the car since arriving home. I had to get the kids to Anne's office so they were not cranky once we arrived. We played some word games in the car and the kids got a couple of small toys. It worked out great! Nikola even said his first sentence "Look at that!" which I was amazed at since he is not really speaking yet.

Anne's baby shower was a lot of fun with good cake and very generous presents (Thanks everyone!). The kids, although shy, really enjoyed being the center of attention. After a while they started to explore; not just the meeting room, but the hallway, bathrooms, etc. It took a bit of effort to chase them down the hallways before they could get into other offices.

Princess Nightgown

Nanny and Grandpa sent another package today. Nikola received shirts and shorts from Target that he definitely needed. Nina got this princess nightgown. She wore it as a dress all the next day, and continued to wear it to bed every night. She has watched a couple of Disney princess videos, and is beginning to grasp the "princess" concept.

Stitch

Today we went to Epcot. The kids seemed to like Innoventions West with all its displays and things to do. Afterwards we ate at the food court in The Land, then went to see Minnie and Mickey Mouse. I think Nina was a little confused at first; not realizing that Minnie Mouse existed, she thought it was Mickey was wearing a dress!

We stopped in the gift shop where the kid's attention was focused on the life-sized plush of Stitch. Nina immediately knew she liked Stitch. We're guessing it was because she could relate to his impish personality.

Which Color?

Anne had fun with Nina today after work. Nina would sit at the top of the playground slide with four different color balls. Anne would tell her which color to toss. Learning numbers has been easy for Nina, but learning colors has been more difficult. Hopefully this will make it more fun for her, and easier to learn.


Nina likes to have her picture taken. Here is one of the photos she asked for after the ball toss game with Anne.

Small Cubic Spaces

This is a short entry, but I had to get this photo online. A few days after trying out the red toy bin for size, Nina found this soft-side cooler and climbed in. She can actually put her head down and fit inside the cooler. My sister Lori will recognize this as the cooler she gave us many years back. The cooler is a perfect cube, measuring 9" x 9" x 9". I double-checked the measurements, and they are correct!

Studios

I took Nina and Nikola over to the Disney/MGM Studios theme park today for a few hours. This was a trial run to see how I would manage with two kids in a crowded theme park. The kids behaved as well as could be expected, and I did better than I thought possible on a first try.


Here's a photo of Nina inside Disney's Playhouse Live attraction. She likes this one since she can sit on the floor, get up and dance around, run to the front and dance with other kids, and see Winnie the Pooh & friends. We haven't gotten the satellite dish installed yet since we don't want to over-stimulate the kids, so they don't recognize a lot of the other characters such as on JoJo's Circus.

Small Spaces

We shot this photo after walking into the family room to find Nina sitting in a red toy bin. Nina is very tiny for her age, and she loves to climb into small spaces. The toy bin measures only 6.5" x 12", yet Nina fits into it comfortably. She is also very fond of balloons since they are the only ball we let her play with indoors. (We had a nerf ball, but it broke our best glass sculpture.)

After we show Nina how to do something correctly, she will follow Nikola around, correcting him whenever necessary. She usually does this in a very loving way, and has quite a bit of influence over Nikola.

Logan Visit

The Logans came to visit us this week. Nina loved being around her two cousins who are older than she is. I suppose its like having older sisters. They played quite a bit on the tricycles in front of the house. Most of my photos came out blurry due to the high rate of speed they can achieve on these three-wheeled machines. I'm not kidding!

It was a special day for the kids so we had pizza, one of their favorites. Later on, the kids and visited the Logans at Gaylord Palms (local hotel) for a walk around the atrium. We got to see live juvenile alligators and turtles. Nikola was really fascinated by the baby turtle display. He would probably stay there for hours if we didn't pull him away.

Nina continued to talk about her older cousins for days after they went back home. We're all looking forward to their next visit in October!