Bootheel

When we were in the bootheel, we visited my great aunt Helen (who is 99 years old!) and my grandpa Leroy in the nursing home. James climbed right up into her walker like it was a stroller, so she obliged and pushed him right around.

 Amelie climbed a tree.

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Nana Jana sent me some of the highlights of the kids' visit with her while we were in Mexico: 

We went to the Bootheel Youth Museum in Malden. Favorite thing to do was climb & cross the bridge but alas no pictures because it was all Nana Jana could do to keep up.

There was more tree climbing. 

And the best part of having a brick house is the opportunity to decorate with chalk. AJ said this was an elephant.

We were all worried that James wouldn't sleep well, but I rocked him while reading a book with much success until he figured out my m.o. and from then on he wanted to read on the couch.

I was also afraid I wouldn't be able to decipher his speech, but when he cried in the bathtub & I asked if he wanted out he replied very plainly that no, he just wanted Amelie out.

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Aunt Lana kept the kids at the daycare a few days. She had James in the building with the babies and Amelie was over with the big kids. I got this picture while we were on the plane waiting to leave for Mexico City: 

More pictures of James sent from Aunt Lana. He got a lot more attached to his "Minky" when he weaned and then he got super-duper attached to it while we were gone.

This is how he sleeps at home, too.

Somebody's having fun!

I asked Amelie what she liked about visiting the bootheel and she said playing with the kid in the red shirt at Sunshine School and also the bridge at the fire station (which I believe was the part of the trip to the Bootheel Youth Museum that mom wrote about, too).  The night we called after they visited the museum, Amelie immediately shouted, "I MILKED A COW!!!" with no context or anything.