It's all relative

With his cousins Julia, Gregory, and Mary visiting last week, Louis enjoyed hours of play at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and he had a wonderful time! We took a day trip to the Air & Space Museum Annex--a bit of a drive for the kids, but everyone agreed it was worth it. Louis loved the open space, and he ran and ran and ran. He learned the word "airplane," and he got plenty of exercise. He loved being out and about, and he took the longest nap ever when we got home.

Most of the week we spent just playing, though, and Louis learned that he had to share Grandma's toys and tasted his first (American?) pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. He managed to nap through some significant noise and he attended his first first birthday party, held in honor of his cousin Paul at the end of the week.

Here are a few miscellaneous photos:

Laughing with Julia (almost 7)

Hugging Mary (almost 3)

Playing with Paul's new xylophone

Dunking cookies with Baba (and enjoying two things he didn't like when we first came home--milk and cookies)

Staring down his trains

This afternoon Louis and I went to visit the library where his Aunt Treasa is a librarian. It wasn't crowded, and she had a pile of train books waiting for him. We looked through about 20 books before he settled on four to take home. I wish I had a photo of Louis when the lady handed him his books to take home. His whole face lit up. She was laughing as we walked out the door. Then we saw a hook-and-ladder truck! It was quite an afternoon.

Picking books with Aunt Treasa

Reading

Lately he wants to hold the books and turn the pages himself.

Coloring a Thomas page at the library

Singing "Deck the Halls" with Mama while we were getting dinner ready--lately we do a lot of singing!