alden has been showered with gifites lately! kevin and linda sent him a lovely stuffed owl that hoots when you press his back--alden was spooked by this at first, but now brings him to us and demands, "press!" and the above photo shows als in a sweater handknit by grammie! it's exactly like a pair that she knit for nick and i when we were little (apparently i hated mine...i have no recollection of this, but little valerie was awfully fond of purple, so though i'd happily wear such loveliness today, i'm not too surprised by my former disdain) and alden looks so handsome in it...don't you think? thank you all so much!

bun is expanding his vocabulary and i think typing out a list of his words now would be sort of silly. there are just too many. he's also working a bit harder at putting them together, which is interesting since so many of his polysyllabic words are still abbreviated into monos that only i understand. anyway, he says "come here" and "go away" and we like to play a little game of acting out these commands, with a big hug and kiss for "come here"

in music class now, when we sing the goodbye song, when it's drawing to a close and we sing, "how 'bout a hug for your mom or dad or the one who takes care of you," alden will stop what he's doing (dancing, spinning, trying to open the door,  playing with the radiator) and come running to me with open arms and a huge grin. best. baby. ever.