Weekend outing

P and I did a quick run down to Hilton Head this weekend to meet up with his family, who spent the week vacationing there.  It was a lot of time spent in the car for just a little time at the beach, but it was worth it to get to see everyone.  We were particularly excited to see our nephews.  We last saw them on Memorial Day, and aren't entirely sure when the next visit will be.  They're 15 and 23 months old.  Kids move through developmental phases so fast at this age, that they're completely different creatures three months later.  And we don't want to miss a single phase!

Little A (23 months) generally warms up to us pretty quickly, but it does take a few minutes to break the ice.  P did it almost instantaneously this time--as soon as he walked through the door, he saw a container of bubble-blowing soap.  "Bubbles?"  "Bubbles!"  Whoa!  The kid's got lots of new words!

A was not so sure about the beach.  P and I took him down on our own one morning.  He was a little overwhelmed by the ocean, so we tried digging and playing with the dump truck at the top of the waves.  He put up with us for about 10 minutes, and then started worrying about the amount of sand on his hands and feet.  He quickly realized that as soon as we washed him off, we were going to get him dirty again.  Enough of this nonsense.  He marched up to the high tide line, announced "bye bye," and headed back up the beach.  We followed--we know when we're beat.

A had spent most of the week playing in the hotel pool, and was thoroughly at home there.  So fun to watch him in the water!  Sometimes he would jump a little too vigorously and find himself underwater.  He was surprised, but not distressed, by this turn of events--he had figured out not to inhale down there.

The pool provided the perfect opportunity to work on my latest shoot-along assignment: light.  The pool had one permanently installed umbrella, and the indirect light under it proved the perfect setting to take pictures.  Now, getting a 2 year old to look at me is a whole 'nother matter....

Practicing floating on a noodle just like his Grammy

So I guess the other moral of the story is that light only gets you so far--emotion is good too.  This is the only picture I got of our other nephew, S.  It's in the parking garage, as we're packing up to leave--hard to imagine a worse lighting scenario, but the picture perfectly reflects the personalities of all involved.

P is a ham for the camera, S is a generally happy boy, and V is thrilled by anything involving her godson

S is just working on his first words.  Here's an indicator of what a great kid he is--instead of using the word "no" in every possible situation, like most toddlers, he's learned "yeah."  To be said in response to anything or nothing, or just muttered to himself as he tools around.  "No" hasn't entered his vocabulary yet.