Before we move on to other things (like airplane pictures), let's take one last look at Eoin and Evie. I'm afraid the boy got short shrift in the last couple of posts, but that's because Evie is older and more interactive at this moment.
That doesn't mean Eoin is a wallflower. As I mentioned yesterday his personality is coming out and he is indeed a (mostly) happy boy. This shot of him playing on his fire engine is ample evidence of that.
On the subject of toys, it absolutely amazes me the amount of stuff middle-class kids get these days! And Mike and Evie are relatively modest in what they buy their children. Tina and I lean toward clothes, movies, books and donations to their respective college funds, so it's not us. It's Christie' mom and her side of the family that really goes to town in the toy department. If I was a kid I'd be in hog heaven.
The upside is they have plenty of neat things to keep them occupied. The down side is where on earth do you store all those things? And what they got was not small. Many of the toys had multiple parts and pieces, too. Walking around the living room proved to be a real challenge at times.
I am happy to say that neither child seems overwhelmed or adversely affected by the mass of presents. Indeed, Evie finds joy in simple things, too, like paper cutout penguins and felt reindeer antlers. It's fun to watch her revel in the small as well as the big.
I think as long as her parents are well grounded - and they seem to be - then it's a good chance she and Eoin will be, too. She certainly appears that way to me.
We can only hope.
One of the most enjoyable parts of watching Evie and Eoin at this stage in their lives is seeing their interaction as siblings. Evie, who likes to tell everyone that she's all grown up now, seems to really like helping out with taking care of little brother. She has been known to give Nana careful instructions on how to change Eoin - even to the point of bossiness!
Eoin, on the other hand, is developing his personality and his playfulness. But you have to watch carefully to notice as he can be a sly little devil. For instance, the above photo was taken at our favorite sushi restaurant in Colorado Springs (yes, I know that sounds weird, but it really is good!). Eoin was fussing because he was hungry. Evie, who has never met a carb she didn't like, was eating steamed rice while we were waiting for our sushi to arrive.
Being the ever helpful girl she is, Evie tried to supplement the Cheerios and yogurt his parents had been feeding Eoin with some of her rice. He gladly accepted the spoonfuls, even as both parents and grandparents belatedly reached for their cameras.
The photos turned out pretty good, but the video was classic. Since Eoin was getting sated by now, he turned playful. Notice how he teases his sister by pretending to take a bite, then turning his head away. Normally you'd think he was fussing, but then he turns back to face her and starts to grin and laugh. It was a game, and both were having fun!
It was truly delightful to watch, albeit a bit messy. The arguments and tears will follow as they always seem to do between siblings, but for now all is happiness and peace. And are we ever thankful for that!
In honor of "Speak Like a Pirate Day," I present this lovey portrait of Eoin and Evie in cool piratical splendor, with hats that also pass as kids' menus at the Blue Bayou restaurant in Disneyland. They make a rather rakish pair, me thinks, even if the hat is a bit too big for the boy. An' believe you me, matey, we had to be movin' pretty quick on the shutter to catch even that little bit, what with that blasted time delay on the Point'n'Shoot! As can be seen in the followin' photo, he'd rather be eatin' his Cheerios and starin' at big sister than be stylin' with Cap'n Jack Sparrow. Arrrgh.
It is so cute to watch Evie interact with her little brother at this age. She is really quite protective of him. If he gets fussy she'll try to cheer him up. When we were visiting this Christmas she discovered a snowman toy that had a recording of Jimmy Durante singing "Frosty the Snowman." She thought it was the funniest thing, so she had to share with Eoin.
And share she did...over and over and over...and over again. The adults were ready to slit their wrists, but Evie would laugh and stick the snowman in front of Eoin and watch him smile and give his little gasp-y laugh. It cracked her up.
In truth it was pretty funny. And much better to have her wanting to make him laugh than cry. I hope that continues for a long while.
Well...that was longer than I expected. I did not plan for a hiatus of this duration, but having the computer go out on me and with it being down for over a month did not help the situation. Between that and the crunch of year-end events, work and outside jobs, blogging became an expendable option. The first month I was too busy to miss it; the second month I found I did miss it.
As far as the computer problem, the nearest thing that we could figure out was that my security program downloaded an update which affected our 64 bit Windows 7 operating system. In short, it turned my "C" drive into a "D" drive; meaning my computer would not even turn on.
Before they figured that out, however, they brought in Tina's computer and our external hard drive to check for viruses. None were on the external, and a minor and inconsequential amount were found on Tina's. Which was good, but not as helpful for getting back into doing work on the computer as I'd hoped.
At least the personal data on the C drive was fully backed up. However, I requested that they try to save my favorites and Outlook emails rather than wipe the C drive and simply reinstall the OP. That complicated matters; that and requesting that they back-up the external on a second external as an additional back-up. You can never have enough redundancy. Unfortunately, that took a couple more weeks of time.
By then we were in Colorado Springs for a nice 8 day visit with the kids and grandkids. Needless to say nothing much got done computer-wise, except barely keep up with the emails. Which wasn't totally bad.
Once we got back there were more complications as my external had to be removed from its case and put in a new one. Then there was reloading the printers and other software in my software-reinstalled C drive. And time passed...and passed...and passed.
But the trip to Colorado was fun! Tiring, but fun. Evie really seems to enjoy her little brother a lot, as seen in the above photo with Tina. And that little girl is chattering up a storm! We played and watched movies and went to tea and watched the snow (ugh) and watched more movies. She is very energetic.
Christie and Mike were mostly fine, except for the bout of 24 (or so) hour flu that cycled throughout the family. I'm happy to say my round only lasted half a day and was more a feeling of nausea than real sickness. A good helping of lamb Vindaloo curry for dinner cured that felling; it burned those bugs right out!
Anyway, I'm back, and looking forward to sharing many more photos and thoughts in the coming days.
Before we move on to other things (like airplane pictures), let's take one last look at Eoin and Evie. I'm afraid the boy got short shrift in the last couple of posts, but that's because Evie is older and more interactive at this moment. 
