A Day with Cousins Tyler and Justin

First I have to mention how much Jana adores Tyler! We hear about Tyler for weeks after we visit him. Whenever we see a blond boy and/or a boy roughly his age, Jana immediately thinks he's Tyler and starts yelling to him.

So, when we told her this morning, as we so rudely woke her, that we were going to see Tyler, she tried to climb out of her crib to "see Tyler now."

We drove up, spent some time with Justin, then went to pick up Tyler from Preschool. They had a wonderful conversation about Dora and Diego on the way home, of which Dadda and I understood very little. :-)

Then the tornado struck. We've always referred to Jana as the toddler tornado, but when you add in the almost 4 year old... Phew. This was one of the many messes today, as they decided to take out every toy many, many times.

I have to say that I love the fact that Jana loves to play with cars, blocks, and balls. She had such a great time playing with all of Tyler's and Justin's toys.

And they had to play with a wide variety of toys at the same time. Here Jana is playing with the ball shooter, holding part of a recorder, and with the monkey flashlight right next to her.
Then they moved on to the race track.

Tyler tried to teach Jana how to use the controller, but Jana had a hard time seeing the connection between squeezing the trigger on the controller and making the car move.

And then Justin (aka Destructo) found them and cars and track went flying.

Which sent Jana into fake uncontrollable fits of laughter.

We were once again reminded of how big Kara is getting. She discovered Justin's push cart/walking toy and stood behind it for a while and then decided to sit on it.

Oh, but when she discovered the buttons that worked the sound effects, whew, the toy's entertainment value increased exponentially.


We made English Muffin pizzas and had a quick bath before loading up, taking Dadda to the airport and coming back to my parents' house.

I have a whole new respect for my brother - bath time, alone, with both girls has always loomed as a daunting task; however, Ryan was able to bathe not one, not two, but three kids between the ages of three and one. No one streaked around the house (except our daughter) and it was so mellow. All I can say is: Teach me, oh wise one!



She's so going to kill us for this picture later on in life, but I LOVE this one. The safety goggles were THE toy that everyone wanted during this bath.

Thanks Tyler and Justin for sharing all of your toys today!