We're Free!

After a week of watching Baba shovel...

staring at mountains of snow...

drinking lots of yogurt smoothies...

playing with everything in the house...
(yes, I mean everything)...

in every possible configuration...

we are happy to report...

that we made it out of the neighborhood today!

Louis hadn't been in the car in a whole week!

So, instead of dancing in the kitchen this morning...

we hit the still somewhat slushy and mostly plowed roads...

and went to buy a train set, which Louis played with all afternoon and evening, taking just one brief dinner break.

Oh, and he paused to read his mail, which arrived for the second time this week, bringing his certificate of citizenship! Louis was more excited about a valentine from his friends, Melanie and Matthew...

especially when he discovered the Thomas stickers in the envelope!

All in all, it was a terrific day and the snow and ice is starting to melt, though the piles will be here for a while. For weeks I have been saying to John, "I can't wait for you to have a snow day," and here we are enjoying a 10-day stretch with him home! We are so lucky. And Louis will be excited when he discovers that his cousins are coming to town tomorrow for the week, so he will have a built-in play group at my parents' house.

Meanwhile, Louis continues to increase his vocabulary. Today he said "hopper" in reference to a particular train car. He also says "gentle" (a word we use a lot) and "cuckoo" (for the cuckoo clock) and many other words we don't always understand, but know are English.

More and more we find Louis is trying to say prayers aloud with us, and today he started singing parts of "The Wheels on the Bus" with us. He enjoys music, but he prefers Baba's doo-wop to Mama's country music, and he makes that quite clear. When I turn on the radio, he actually puts his fingers in his ears and then points to the radio to tell me to change the station. Put the doo-wop CD on and he dances around the room with Baba. I guess I've heard my last country songs for a while!