The Adventures of Jing and Ying!: Thursday

Thursday night my niece and nephew (the girls' cousins) flew in from Albuquerque, New Mexico. They are spending a couple of weeks at Nai Nai's house and a few days at our house and then flying home. They flew into Cincinnati, because they had to have a direct flight since Christian is 10 and Alessandra is 13.

Because they live halfway across the country, we only see them once a year, if even that. They flew in around this time last year. This was really the first time that Little Sis has spent any time with them. Big Sis had a blast with cousin Alessandra. Alex brought her I-pod and the two of them shared earphones while singing along to Hannah Montana songs. It was really cute. Christian is 10 and very much interested in everything from reptiles to stones to history to CSI.

They left with Nai Nai on Friday morning. Friday was full of downpours (rain) but it stopped by the time the fireworks started. The town we live in has a great fireworks display and we are fortunate in that we have a spectacular view from our house. We stood outside on the driveway and watched the "big flowers" which is what Little Sis called the fireworks. The show ended at around 11 pm, so the girls were up way past their bedtime, but it was so much fun.

Today Big Sis and Daddy went to Home Depot to build a birdhouse. Home Depot has a kids workshop the first Saturday of each month. The kids and their parents get to build various things such as a ship, a planter box, flagpole, race car, etc. When they finish each project they received a certificate and a pin to put on their apron. Right now Big Sis has 8 pins. It's a good thing for her to have "Daddy Time" and it gives me a little bit of a break.

We cut naptime short today so that Big Sis and I could visit my father in the hospital. He seems to be doing pretty well. He is very, very pale and weak but that is to be expected. Before the surgery he told everyone that he really didn't want any visitors. Now he feels well enough to have visitors. He's not allowed to eat yet, except for one bite of jello every hour. Big Sis did really well at the hospital. She chatted away to Papa Paul just like she always does. She was fascinated by his iv bags and what she calls his "pee bag." We stayed about an hour but he was getting worn out and Big Sis was getting a little bored so we left. We'll visit again tomorrow morning, this time with Daddy and Little Sis.

Below: Alessandra & Kylie share a love of Hannah Montana songs.