Ken and Judy's Excellent Babysitting Adventure, Part I

Here's Evan (also lovingly known as "The Ev-Man")!

Well, Evan, I'm keeping my promise.  Since I had no pictures of you in the last blog, you get the privilege of leading this one off.  Any comments?

Evan:  "Wow.  That's cool, Grandpa.  I'm flabbergasted. To be honest, I just don't have the words to describe it."

All of these pictures were taken during a marvelous three day babysitting adventure with Claire and Evan.  This gave Jennifer and Matt a chance for a New York getaway.

Claire shows us her brand new swing set.  Jen and Matt actually got it just two days before their trip.  We were able to use it two of our three days, and Claire absolutely loves it.

Claire: "Hey, this thing doesn't have any giddy-up.  Who's gonna push me?"

Granny was able to drop by for a visit and see Claire in her "big girl" swing.

Claire:  "Granny, be sure to catch me when I fly outta this thing."

It was a rather chilly day, so Evan decided to stay bundled up in the stroller.  But don't worry, he got quite a workout himself.  But mostly inside.

Evan:  "Am I the only one who listened to the weatherman?"

Claire:  "Granny, if you thought the swing was something, just watch me on the slide.  You do realize I'm FOUR FEET up in the air, don't you?"

Claire: "Hey, who's the wise guy?  I didn't have time to count to three!"

This picture is included to verify that Claire is, indeed, Jennifer's daughter  (She did actually climb the ladder a couple of times). 

Back inside, Evan was quite content in his little exerciser.  Or whatever you call it.  He was quite active and inquisitive.  And especially attentive to his big sister.  She's hard to top.

Claire:  "Evan, believe it or not, just a few months ago I was bouncing around in this thing.  In fact, I think I'll do it again."

Evan, Grandma, and Grandpa all find Claire's performance quite entertaining.

Evan attempts to whistle his enthusiastic approval.  But no noise came out.  At least not from that end.

(Forgive me, Evan.  Just trying to spice up the blog).

Evan:  "That's okay, Grandpa.  One of these days I'll be blogging about you.  And there won't be a thing you can do about it.  Tee hee."

As Claire has grown older, she still enjoys the playthings of her babyhood.  But she approaches them more analytically, with -- dare I say it -- an engineer's mentality?

Claire:  "If I can switch these wires, I can hotwire this mobile to rock a la Bruce Springsteen."

As you can see, there was no shortage of things to do inside or out.  It just takes a little imagination.  Grandpa and Claire have a little game called "Let's see how long it takes to peel all the bark off a pine tree."

As happy as Evan and Claire were, there were many mentions of Mommy and Daddy.  What a thrill when Claire got to talk to them all the way from New York.  Which is now part of her vocabulary.

Evan:  "Grandpa, this blog is great fun, but if somebody doesn't tell Grandma how ticklish this is pretty quick, I'm gonna wet my pants.  Oops, never mind."

Visit again soon for Part II of this adventure, in which Brianna and Hunter come to visit and all four children are at their delightful best.