yay for cousins

Zach, D, and I spent a lot of the day over at the in-laws' house, where D got to play with yet another set of new toys and get to know Maddie the dog. Maddie seemed a bit jealous of the attention being paid to the baby, but then decided that licking D's head seemed like a good course of action. The best though was when D started crawling towards Maddie and leaning his head into her. =P



Philip picked up my niece Ryan from out of town, so in the later afternoon we came back here to let them play. Ryan's been super excited about her cousin all along, and rarely left his side during our summer visit. Apparently she's been counting down the weeks till she got to see us again, and came out the front door waving and smiling this HUGE smile as soon as we pulled up to the house. I was worried about how D would react, as he was tired and a bit grumpy by then. But as soon as he saw Ryan I saw the corners of his mouth turn up a bit behind his thumb, and then we came inside and between the little bongos that Mom had gotten out for him (which he knew what to do with from the start) and playing with Ryan, he was happy as a clam. It was so, so adorable to watch them play together and just love being in each other's presence. It was cool seeing Ryan so excited about D last time, and D was interested in her, but now he's a bit older and his interest in other kids seems to have grown and, well, it's just plain heartwarming watching them now.

Dinner tonight was HYSTERICAL. Zach's parents came over, so we had my mom, Philip, Cristina, JC, Katie, Zach, Hank, Susan, and even Andrew over, all sitting around the table, and D and Ryan were sitting next to each other. D ate fabulously, chowing down on broccoli, bread, and then 1.5 jars of pears. Every so often he'd reach over to Ryan, or smile at her, or in some other way seem to interact with her. And then he started doing this thing where he'd lift one arm up above his head, palm forward as if for a high-five, and everyone else would react by putting their hands up in the air, too, and cheering. And D would smile, and lift his hand up again, and everyone would cheer and raise their hands up, and so it went off and on all through dinner. It cracked me up. With Thanksgiving coming up I've been thinking about things I am thankful for, and family and moments like tonight's dinner definitely top the list.