Visitation Rights

Poor Aunt J. She came to town to take a dreaded exam and then when she finished we planned to got to the Wild Animal Park, now renamed Safari Park, but the "arctic blast" descended upon SD. Actually, we were spared the record-breaking lows, but there was some ice on the deck this morning.
This was the scene when Aunt J arrived earlier this week:

A 4 day weekend and then 2 sick days at home and boredom set in.

Meanwhile, Mr. "I do it" continued to make mischief and break out in hives.

Occasionally he needed a rest.

Mr. Burli continued on the kitchen project - he's now nearly done with the re-wiring (moving the outlets to more logical places - like next to the door. Previously one light switch for the kitchen was on one side under the cupbaords and the other was lower on the other side.) and he also moved the heater vents up so we can put in baseboards there.

Fortunately, she didn't get sick. Unfortunately, as we were making alternative plans for Saturday's rain-out, Tiny tripped and cut his chin and I ended up spending about 4 hours at the ER to get it glued back together. It wasn't a big cut, but it was pretty deep. Of course, as soon as we got home again he tried to stand on a lego box and hit his forehead. He is much more accident-prone than JT ever was, but he is also a very different child.
Aunt J did get to see a bit of the 'language explosion': he has already been making little sentences (I do it and I see it among his favorites), but he is rapidly adding new words and combinations. He still liked to say JA to most everything, especially if you make it sound like a question. This can lead to some funny conversations in the car on the way home from school. He also calls his brother by his whole name, which is interesting. Most of JT's friends called him JJ when he was little and many kids double up the first consonant sound for difficult names. He mostly knows English words with some German thrown in (Bagger, for example) and I have a feeling he knows more Spanish than we realize.
He loves to sit in the front seat of the car and drive and just now he carried his stool over to the hallway to try and reach the keys. Once in a while I can cajole him into drawing or coloring, but he prefers trucks and trains or playing outside.

We did get in one game of basketball before the winter storm.
And, much to her delight, Aunt J played legos with JT while I was gone. And Lego Star Wars on the Wii. Now she should be set for another couple months.