Ok... so these pictures and the video are really horrible quality. I was too tired to look for my camera, so these are off of my cell phone in low lighting...

So with that disclaimer aside...

Jaykin is here!!! YAY. ok... for those of you not in "the know".. Jaykin is shiela's ex's 11 year old son. He and his older sister (Emily, age 15) live in New Mexico with their mom and her partner. While shiela wasn't exactly given the title of a "mom" when she was with them, she was part of the family from when Jaykin was an infant and thinks of him and Emily as her kids. It's a bit challenging in that we need a special acronym to explain the relationship of the kids to us.. but the bottom line is that we love them and have the opportunity to have them visit us typically once per summer and then we visit them in NM or TX when we travel out there. Jaykin will be with us for a full month.

Ben wasn't too sure what to make of him at first. We were waiting for Shiela and Jaykin to arrive at the Alewife T station and when Jaykin got in the car, Ben couldn't take his eyes off of him, but he also had his hands up in a partial shield.. figuring that if he covered his eyes.. he'd be ok. The shyness didn't last long and by the time we were home, Jaykin had become Ben's new hero. Ben was showing off and having a blast. Here is a bad quality pic and a worse quality video from last night:

for some reason the sound doesn't work on my computer with the video connected by flickr... urgh.. the best part of the video is Ben squealing. I'll have to see if I can upload it to YouTube.

Ben is sharing his room with Jaykin.. so Jaykin gets the twin bed and with any luck, things will continue to go as smoothly as they did last night. Everyone slept well. Jaykin is at work with Shiela now.. having already watched a movie and listened to her ipod... Ben is at school.. and yes.. i brought not only his ear plugs, but also his hat and his bathing suit to daycare today.. plus a bunch of extra clothes for him since all of the clothes in his basket are too small for him again.. doh!