Memorial Day Photo Slam!

We traveled to Ellisland for Memorial Day - Hank rarely lacked a new area to explore or someone to play with. He also picked up "no" from Grace. I read some of Eric's book and attended Fort Building 101 taught by Prof. Scott. Echo enjoyed shopping with Liz and crafted some crafty things with Laura. Lotsa photos below:

Grace (Ellis!) looking fierce...

...until felled by strep throat. Get well soon!

Which goes better with ham, Scott or the pineapple?

Crayons on cement meant skullduggery for Laura.

GROG!
(We're retiring his bottles this week - he likes sippies just fine.)

My favorite pic of the trip - "Scottball" on the trampoline.

Thanks for being gentle, kitty. Tough being baby's white whale.

Not that the meeting was entirely tension-free.

Hank had a great time in the huge yard with so many playmates,

but we were not entirely safe from Hankasaurus' alter ego, Tantrumactyl!
(Isn't it cute? Until he gets older, at least.)

Literature

Hank has a new favorite book:

He'll go to his bookshelf, pick up one book at a time and discard* it until he finds this one. Sometimes he brings the book to me, but usually it's daddy who gets the honor. Then he opens the book to his favorite animals for his chosen reader to make the animal sounds. He really likes the dog, kitten, chick, lion and tiger. My guess is that these are the animals that daddy has the best noises for. Less desirable are the penguin, macaw, elephant and zebra. Time to brush up on your animal impersonations daddy.

*toss it behind him, he's a machine.

Fever=Hair Growth?

See this boy? Well, he's got something to show you all, aside from every tooth in his ever lovin' mouth. Hair! He's got hair, at least a lot more of it.
Hank's been pretty ill since we got back from Sea-town. First it was gastrointestinal (you probably don't want the details on that one, lets just say it lasted 10+ days). Then he got a nasty cough/fever combo. One night his fever got pretty high (102, I know, not that high, but it seemed bad at the time). The next morning he had hair, lots of hair, combable hair with even more curls, curls curls! I'm all, "squee!" over the curls and daddy's all "do we even have a comb for him?" and, "How do you brush a baby's hair, anyway?"

Fun in the (Seattle!) Sun

Hank and I went to Seattle for a quick visit with the cousins etc. He had a great time with his only cousin on his dad's side who hugged him so bracingly, he didn' t know how to respond. Nana and Papa came over to Auntie's house and we all got to play outside in the gorgeous weather. Hank's favorite part? Eating watermelon with cottage cheese on the grass. He ran around making a mess of himself and anyone willing to let him touch them. He stayed on the swing for several seconds before getting freaked out and his cousin even played ball with him. We're all looking forward to more scenes like this one this summer. Hank let off some steam at the airport, waiting for our flight to Las Vegas. He pushed the stroller all over terminal B. Lots of, "Isn't he cute!" comments from the peanut gallery, he ate it up.