Emma visits her cousins the twins

Emma had a week off in mid-February and one of the things we did is spend several days visiting my sister (Aunt Kate), brother-in-law (Uncle Ron) and my nephew Nikolas and niece Amelia, the twins. Emma had a great time with them and they are very enamored of her as well. I knew that taking care of twin two year olds must be challenging, but I had no idea until I lived with them for four days. Wow, I am surprised my sister even has time to check her e-mail, let alone do anything else. They are, however, very cute and fun and do take a reasonably long nap in the afternoon and are good night-time sleepers most of the time. Anyway, we mostly hung around the house since it was cold and icy/snowy on one of the days. We did go to Hoppin Tots gymnastics class with them and also to the Mall indoor playground and out to lunch. The grown-ups all went out to dinner one night with my Mom as well and Kate's regular babysitter watched Emma and the twins. We went to my favorite French bistro place in Roland Park near my sisters called "Petit Louis" where they have fabulous French fries that taste just as good as the ones I used to eat in Belgium -- those are hard to find! Emma and I spent some time with just Grandma too and went to the Maryland Science Center one afternoon. I also got to eat some yummy Indian food one day for lunch with Kate and my Dad. My Dad drove Emma and I up to Baltimore from the Eastern shore where he lives now. We spent the first part of the week with Dad and Hazel. Emma got to play with her friend Hannah who lives around the corner from Dad and is in 3rd grade. They had a sleep over and mostly played WebKinz and talked about Hannah Montana, and I hardly saw them so got to read a lot of my book. We also went out to Assateague National Seashore Park and "adopted a foster pony". It's a neat program where for just $25 you can choose the pony you want to foster from a book of photos and then you get a large photo and certificate in a nice folder (like a diploma folder) and you also get a newsletter for the year. At the Park's web site you can track the location of the herd your pony belongs to. Very cool. Well, without further ado here are some photos.


Emma holding Pumpkin at Assateague (it was very cold and windy)

Amelia post bathtime in her cute hooded towel

Uncle Ron helping Nikolas on the balance beam at Hoppin Tots

This is the best photos I could get of the three cousins together. Wow, those two year olds really move around a lot and don't like to look happy or at the camera on cue.