"FAMILY HUG!"

A long time ago we started what we call family hugs. It's basically making a klingon sandwich, but hugging. Well, now it's not us calling them - it's him. We'll be sitting on the couch and he'll come running up to us and jump in our laps, hug both of us, and yell, "FAMILY HUG!" I've had 3 of them today alone. It's so sweet.

We're starting to get in the imagination phase. This kid is a great storyteller. He makes up all kinds of stories about how his foot hurts because he went swimming in the ocean and a shark came up and bit him then he hit him, grabbed him by the tail and swung him around, and poked him in the eye, and got rid of that mean shark so he could go back to the boat and go to the beach to build a sand castle. I don't know where it comes from, either, but he just goes on and on and on and on...

I've turned the klingon into quite the cruise fan. I have ship models of all the ships I've been on in the living room, and he loves to carry them around the house and count them. This leads into a discussion about our next cruise, which is on the Carnival Splendor. So we tell him all about it, and then he says, "After the Splendor I want to go on the Holidays!" Then I tell him that our next trip is on the Ecstasy to be the ring bearer in his uncle's (my brother) wedding. "And THEN can we go on the Holidays? And the Elation?" He's only been on one cruise, but he knows more ship names than his daddy.