As you know, Vin’s cousin Becky and her family were here for Rafe’s birth. Everyone arrived the day before Rafe was born, and everyone except Becky and Aunt Mary (Becky’s 98-year-old grandmother) left the day after he was born. Becky (and Aunt Mary) stayed to help us out for the next few days. Here they are with their beautiful smiles:
[[image:2011_becky_10.jpg:Becky and Aunt Mary:center:0]]
Note: Mouse over the pictures for captions
Yaya had tons of fun with her cousins! When Gabby and Grace arrived, Yaya immediately roped them into playing with her. She even allowed them to do her hair (she hates when we try to do her hair):
[[image:2011_becky_01.jpg:Grace, Gabby and Yaya:center:0]]
[[image:2011_becky_02.jpg:Back view of Yaya’s hair:center:0]]
I think they managed to use every single hair thing that we had available in the girl’s hair :-). While we cooked dinner, the girls made cookies together:
[[image:2011_becky_03.jpg:Choosing cookie cutters:center:0]]
[[image:2011_becky_05.jpg:Gabby shows Yaya how to do it:center:0]]
[[image:2011_becky_04.jpg:Yaya gives the rolling pin a try:center:0]]
While the cookies are baking and dinner is being made (it was fun to have Becky and Mary in the kitchen, all of us working noisily together), the girls find other activities to do including artwork and music.
[[image:2011_becky_06.jpg:Uncle Phil joins the girls’ band:center:0]]
After dinner it is time to decorate and eat cookies!
[[image:2011_becky_07.jpg:The chocolate cookies were a hit:center:0]]
Yaya of course decorates a cookie only to give it to Papa to consume. She did not actually eat any of the cookies herself. Why should she when she has toast! 🙂 She wasn’t even tempted watching her cousins eat the cookies. Maybe some day. The next day, we spend most of it at the hospital welcoming Adik into our lives. Yaya got to spend more time with her cousins until they leave the day after that. As mentioned before, Becky stayed on longer to help us get situated with Adik. She may have only stayed a few days but she’s like a hurricane! The house has never been more organized or more clean! Becky organized an art section for Yaya as well as lots of activities with her, and also whipped the house into shape. She even broke out the shark steamer and steam cleaned our floors! She’s unstoppable! I’ll group the photos according to category. First category, activities with Yaya:
[[image:2011_becky_08.jpg:Reading on the floor:center:0]]
[[image:2011_becky_15.jpg:Reading on Papa’s napping chair:center:0]]
[[image:2011_becky_09.jpg:Let’s paint!:center:0]]
Becky introduced Yaya to the safety scissors (for children) and the glue stick, and helped her create a life-szed cutout of herself:
[[image:2011_becky_11.jpg:The beginnings of a life-sized Yaya:center:0]]
[[image:2011_becky_12.jpg:Yaya and her cut-out image:center:0]]
[[image:2011_becky_13.jpg:She’s excited about it!:center:0]]
A wall is designated for our favorite Yaya works of art:
[[image:2011_becky_17.jpg:Yaya poses next to her “art wall”:center:0]]
Becky also creates a stash of papers / color pencils / crayons / cuttings / glue sticks / etc. for Yaya to readily create her works. It even allows Vin to make Yaya a Wonder Pets cape while Rafe and I were at the hospital, taking care of the bilirubin issue:
[[image:2011_becky_18.jpg:Yaya likes being a Wonder Pet:center:0]]
Sadly I didn’t take as many pictures of Becky with Rafe as I should have. Too many things to do (too many lovely painkillers to dull my wits as well as the pain). But of course, Becky also spent time with us and Rafe (even though Yaya did try to monopolize her time!).
[[image:2011_becky_14.jpg:Becky, Rafe and Yaya (who might be napping):center:0]]
Becky reorganized the pantry (it’s so beautiful now!!!). Not so sadly, I don’t have a before picture for comparison, since it was really messy and not something I wanted documented 😉 but you can see how nice it looks after Becky got through with it:
[[image:2011_becky_16.jpg:Unrecognizably organized!:center:0]]
Also, remember the nursery? We worked on getting it ready for Yaya three and a half years ago, but after Yaya was born we never went back to it despite our best intentions. Becky fixed it up so that it is almost ready for Yaya to occupy as a child (and not as a baby, since that ship has sailed!).
[[image:2011_becky_20.jpg:Wallpaper animal runner has been put up:center:0]]
[[image:2011_becky_19.jpg:Mattress arrived, and bed made:center:0]]
[[image:2011_becky_21.jpg:Toy area carved out:center:0]]
There is stlil work to be done (covering up of ladder to the top bunk, railings for the bed, something to dull the sharp corners in the room) but this is small compared to what Becky got done. It is really quite amazing. If she had stayed two weeks, I think the whole house would be completely reorganized and redone! 🙂
We can’t express how thankful we are to you, Becky! Thanks to you and your family for being here to share with us the joy of Rafe’s birth, and thank you for staying with us and making sure we were all settled in while completing a makeover for our house, you crazy multi-tasker you! We can’t wait to see you again soon, I hope. Love you and miss you all!
