The Library

This isn't revolutionary or anything, but we love going to the library because it's really the best way to combine an outing and free books in the same trip. We started going last fall and we'd bring home about 6 books at a time which saved all of us from boredom. A couple of the trips even inspired a couple of books to buy because she loved them so much. Going to the library isn't really a newsflash by itself; Allison 's habit of "reading" to us is the real hot topic. She insists on reading her books to us before we read them to her every night. She'll start with the usual "Once upon a time" or something like it and then she'll sort of mumble what's going on in the pictures with actual phrases from the book thrown in. It's the cutest thing we've ever heard. We catch each other's eye as she's doing this (she's very serious about it and therefore doesn't see our glances) and we just crack up (silently, of course). She was doing it today as we picked out books. She found a seat at one of the tables (hard to do since the place was crawling with kids today) and proceeded to "read" the pile of books she gathered. It allowed us to leave with fewer books and it weeded out the dumb ones. (Some books out there are so dumb, I swear almost anyone can be a children's book author.)

Thomas is taking 2-3 steps at a time now, usually from his push toy (which he uses all the time) to something sturdy, like a chair or the couch. It's so neat to watch his face light up when he goes for it. It won't be long, now...