Fun with blocks

Yesterday evening Madeline and I held down the fort at home while Summer co-hosted a party celebrating Julia's successful thesis defense.  (Congratulations, Julia!)  We ate macaroni and cheese and broccoli, Madeline took a bath, and we read two daddy-themed books at Madeline's request.

Today we had brunch with Julia before she and Shawn took off for California.

We had planned to get a Christmas tree, but as you can see in the above picture, the weather was gray and rainy this morning.  Instead, we played at home. Madeline got her (slightly oversized) Ned the Neuron t-shirt in the mail and insisted on wearing it for the rest of the day.

While Madeline was down for her nap, the weather improved.  But Madeline slept for hours, and when she woke up the sky was dark and the tree farm closed.

So we went to Providence instead, attempted some Christmas shopping, and ate delicious Japanese and Korean food for dinner.

Back at home, we played with blocks.  Apparently, Madeline spent much of Thursday and Friday building towers at daycare.  So today we scrubbed down my childhood blocks and this evening we got to building.

Madeline really, really likes blocks.

And she's good at playing with them, too.  Among other architectural feats, she stacked and balanced these five pieces without any help at all!

Finally, we closed out the night by letting Madeline stay up late and watch Frosty the Snowman.  She liked that too!