Florida Pictures

I forgot to put the pictures here, but I've had them for weeks. Things have been so good lately with the babies that I think I thought I'd done it. Joash has settled nicely into life in America. He absolutely loves his rides in his 'special seat' in the car, with all the trucks and tractors to see everywhere. And the 'new kids' just keep coming, though he's a bit of a loner at play. It's still a bit unnerving when he gets that toddler look in his eye and he's rife to misbehave, but those looks are more infrequent for now. Is that what I'm meant to keep calling him? A toddler? Because his walk is now steady and strong. He spends handfuls of minutes at a time running laps of the living room. A bouncing run that flip flops his hair.

That kid. Every day it seems like he has a new sentence to share, and he's started expressing his emotions. At nap time yesterday, he told me he was, 'So sad!' At nap time is when we recount our days. 'Funny Jack!' he exclaims after we've met fellow expats and their three young babes for lunch. 'See Luthor?' he asks days after we've met a friend's smiley boy. Finally I have to wind down the conversation to remind him to go to sleep and he tosses his body over on the pillow until he remembers something important about a monster truck or 'Light Queen' (Lightning McQueen), and I have to remind him again. I will never regret spending nap time with my boy instead of busied with incessant chores.

And sweet Ammi girl bursts enthusiasm when she recognizes it's me who has her, it's me up with her in the midnight hours, it's me catching her nose or freeing her from a diaper. Her limbs fight each other for space and she looks like she's dancing. She's so much more routined than Joash ever was. We left her last night for a two hour date because she regularly takes a hefty evening nap. Even when we were in Florida just weeks ago, that ended in gales of screams, but now we come home to thumbs ups from the grandparents and the visual of her spread eagle, her full weight released on Grandma's torso. Amazing babies. When it's good, it is the sum of life. And let's not talk about the bad for just this once.

Dan leaves tomorrow for the better part of a month, and with that comes the familiar struggle to find balance between missing him and making it. I'm not good at finding that. The more I'm alone, the more I want to be, but hopefully this is the last big chunk of travel for a while, and then we can start a new part of life in a new place. In our own place. Settled in a way we haven't been for years. I'm not a good nomad, so I'm excited to stop transitioning and finally just be transitioned.

This is our last picture from Korea. Our restless one month old girl resting in her Papa's hands.


And out first picture in America, resting in her Grandpa's hands, watching something good, I think.


The start of a theme: sleeping on Grandma.


Some of her first smiles. This is so common now. Common but never ordinary.


Back when jet lag was a particular struggle of Joah's, he fell asleep in his yogurt on the couch. I removed the yogurt and left him passed out.


This is my ol' grump. She has already grown out of this face.


This is one of my favorites.


Good smiles for Grandma.


Joah's obsession with his sister waned slightly while we were in Florida, though it's mostly returned by now. He requests to hold her, and when he's done holding her, he just sort of starts rolling her off himself. We're working on that part.


More sleeping on Grandma. There's not much to say about these pictures, but I am so glad they exist.


Beach fun. There's a little local beach just ten minutes or so from my old house. It's not the beach anyone goes to Florida for, and I doubt anyone swims there much. It was our test beach to gauge Joah's actual interest, and good thing we didn't go way out of our way because all he wants to do at a beach is pick up fistfuls of sand and move it around. He'll make a good excavator some day.



This concrete slab was more beach to him than the water.


Playing with his Papa.


Walking to the shore.


There was also a beach ball. My mom bought all the inflatables in the store.


There were some hard afternoon naps. Joash kept his face nuzzled down in the bed like this for two hours.


The last of the nappers.

The problem now is that I left my camera charger plugged into my parents' living room wall, so I don't have great pictures of Grandma Jean and the babes. I will make up for that when we come back in December. Festive pictures all.