Papa, New Friends, "Try it ... you'll like it!"

Papa arrived today! Allen was very excited to pick him up at the airport, and was in Nana's arms pointing to Papa and smiling when he came to meet them. Pretty much no one else has existed since Papa's appearance. Papa read to him in the car; Papa fed him "pizzie" at the pizza place; and he cried when we had to go home this afternoon.

This evening we went to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner -- Saltus. Nana and Papa love the raw oysters, Daddy loves the sushi, and Mommy loves their dirty martinis. Allen loves the "owives" from Mommy's dirty martini. Overall he was quite well-behaved during dinner ... he ate his pasta all by himself (and ate a ton, which is good, since the pants he wore to meeting last night nearly fell off of him because he's so skinny), and made everyone try it ("Try it ... you'll like it" he likes to say, since he learned the phrase from an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba). He played with his mail truck and bus ("mail sleeping" and he put the mail truck upside down with the wheels up in the air). He talked to all the staff -- "Hello, how you? Thang you, you're welcome." Nana and Mommy sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to him and he really wanted Papa to do it too, but he couldn't quite get the hang of it. We decided it was time to leave once Allen tried to dip his "binky" into Papa's wine, and drove his bus onto Papa's salad plate.

Since it was a lovely night, we decided to walk by the water and look at the boats (one of Allen's favorite things to do). Once again, it was an occasion in which I should have had my camera, and once again, I did not. He waved to the boats, and ran down the river walk after them. He walked up to two little blond-haired British girls who were sitting on a bench swing with their parents. He marched right up to them, said "Hello, how you?" and proceed to climb right up onto the swing with them. I took a picture of the kids with the British mom's camera and gave her my card, so hopefully she'll send me the picture.

Then he ran onto the grassy area and chased after two older boys' soccer balls. He ran around with them, and threw the ball, and chased it, and kicked it. They weren't so amused, but they reluctantly shared. When it was time to go, Allen didn't put up a fight, but instead said, "Bye bye! Thang you!" So sweet.

We walked some more towards the boats, saw a "Mia puppy" (Chihuahua puppy), and sat on the bench swing with Nana and Papa. Overall it was a fantastic end to the day, and he fell asleep quite quickly once we got him home, after he made Mommy and Daddy "cwy" before he would kiss them (this is his new favorite thing to do ... if you ask for him a kiss, he says, "cwy" and won't kiss you until you pretend to cry first).