today we went to gigi's house to give odin a chance to meet some members of his extended family.

although he occasionally shows a shy side of his personality, today he was quite happy to have new friends to play with and quickly did his best to impress upon his cousin richelle just how strong he's been getting!

odin and his cousin amanda play with the same fisher price toy phone that everyone remembers playing with as a child. there was a copyright notice on the bottom of the phone that was dated "1961" so it might even be that odin is playing with a toy that grandpa eric kicked around as a young lad ( although he probably was already a little too old for such a child's toy :-) ).

odin's birthday is rapidly approaching but we were still surprised to find that his aunt valerie had brought him his very first birthday present.of course, we couldn't wait a week to open it!

if you look close you'll see it's a shirt from her hometown, old orchard beach, which is a popular summer spot with vacationers throughout new england.

thanks!

while odin has been practicing pounding the keys for quite some time, today he had his first official piano lesson from his great aunt ginny and aunt valerie on the piano at gigi's house that generations of young musicians used to learn the fundamental of music theory.

great aunt ginny's hands are on the left and aunt valerie's hand is on the right.

as he is known to do, odin first sits back and watches intently as they play a familiar tune and after awhile decides that he wants to join in the fun!