Fun at Home & The Zoo

Ruby and I hit the zoo (again!) to check on the progress of our trunked friend and some of the other baby animals. You actually can't even tell in this picture, but these are two of the three brown bear cubs. They were really being pretty funny while we were there--wrestling around and generally trying to get mom's attention (THAT sounds familar!). It was a hot day and Mama Bear decided to go down the steep steps to the water. One by one the cubs followed her, except for the last cub who decided to leap down (really a LONG drop) and landed right on mom--that'll get her attention!

Ruby's favorite animals this time were the birds (always a favorite) and the giraffes. One of the giraffes had decided that he needed to get this succulent weed that was down in the gully between the giraffe "area" and where the public stands. Imagine a giraffe just about doing the splits trying to reach something lower than its feet--it really was a hoot! Then, of course, he kept losing it, so this happened repeatedly. Just when he had it good another giraffe came over and decided he wanted to "share". Eventually the first giraffe gave up and dropped the weed on top of the second one's head. He just stood up and started walking around with it up there--none the wiser! It was just too funny. Finally it fell off and some little antelope swiped it up and chomped it down before the giraffes even knew what was going on!

We had to check up on the baby elephant (of course!). He was finally outside with all the females and seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit. I was surprised how much he had grown and he really looks much cuter now that his eyes are fairly normal and he's getting his thicker skin! We didn't have any run-ins with delinquent donkeys this trip, though I must admit I wasn't really that crazy about hanging around the petting zoo. I'd like to go home with all my fingers thank you very much!

Around the house, Ruby has really started to enjoy looking at her books on her own. She has own book in particular that has little slider windows for each letter of the alphabet with something hidden underneath (ex. A is for Ant). She really could spend a lot of time opening and closing those little windows. She also loves the textured books and anything with flaps!

One of her other favorite things to do is crawl up into a chair with a bunch of stuffed animals. After getting all cozy, she proceeds to throw them all down and then signs, "Help!", which means she wants me to pick them up so she can start all over again. While I'm thrilled she's using her sign language, I do need to be careful not to let the cuteness of it all manipulate me into doing her bidding! We've learned that there does need to be some ignoring so that she'll attempt to do these things on her own!

Well, I'll end today with another spaghetti eating snapshot. You'll notice that while she is eating the spaghetti with her hands, she sure has gotten a lot tidier at it! Just a little blob on her chin with hardly any on her bib or the table--hurray!

I hope to be able to put up the recording of Jared's Men's Quartet soon... If Ruby decides to take a good nap today I might just get it done, we'll see!