Party of Five

Did anyone noticed that I was ... missing ... for a while there?  Right before New Year's?  Yeah, I was a little busy.  MJ and I were caring for our niece Hayden (almost 1) and nephew Dane (just turned 3) for a few days while my brother and his wife had a little football getaway.  So in case anyone's doing the math, that makes 5 kids under 4.  And I lived to tell about it!

We actually had a blast.  Hayden and Dane are such dears, and this was the first time we'd had them all to ourselves.  For three days, too!

MJ reading The Polar Express to Dane.
Despite his expression here, Dane loved it.

Dane was REALLY excited about Rory.  So MJ enlisted his eager support for every feeding and walk.  There's also some train tracks within earshot of our house, so there were a few long walks in the hopes of seeing a train (no such luck).

CC and Dane had a great time with finger paints.  CC taught Dane that you can make some cool splatter marks (on everything in the vicinity) if you get a bunch of paint on your hands and then clap fast.  Awesome.

No, she's not an extra in a horror movie;
she just got a little aggressive with the red finger paint!

Now that I've recovered, I'm looking forward to Jon and Susan returning the favor!