Last weekend we spent a VERY hot, but fun, day at the zoo. Maybe it was because of the heat, but we didn’t have to deal with any crowds, which was really nice. Nathan really like looking at most of the animals and getting to run around. I think his favorites were his first peak at the zebra, the fish tank in the monkey house that was filled with tons of little fish and turtles, and the goat petting zoo. He could have stayed in that petting zoo all day going from goat to goat to goat, trying to feed them hay and dirt. He didn’t seem to have any fear, and luckily they were all pretty friendly (they were probably too exhausted from the heat to try running away.)

Pointing to the Zebras.

Showing me what a Monkey does.

Picking up dirt to try to feed the goat.

Talking to the goat.

Someone was nice enough to offer to take our picture.

More photos from our day here.

When Nathan’s room was just a guest room with a double bed, Fen used to hide all the little things he’d find or steal under the bed and sometimes it was hard to get him out from underneath. He hasn’t tried to do that with Nathan’s crib, but while I was cleaning under it the other day (it’s the Land of Missing Pacifiers) he dove under it and wouldn’t leave.

Eventually Nathan figured out where he was and came in to investigate. I wasn’t sure how he’d react since he gets frustrated with Fen when he gets too close to some of his toys or food, but after sitting back and watching for a minute, he decided it was just funny.

Nathan has started remembering songs and dances that he learns at daycare. We were listening to the Wiggles the other night and when “Rock-a-Bye Your Bear” came on, Nathan started doing a little dance to the song. He clapped when it said everybody clap, he turned around when it said to turn around, he even rocked his bear once and tried to sh! sh! sh! to me like it does at the end. We had fun listening to the song a few times and dancing to it.

Last night he did it again when the song “Five Little Monkey’s Jumping on a Bed” was on. When one fell off and bumped his head, Nathan was patting his head. He was playing with a toy at the time, so it was almost like an automatic response when he heard the song.

He’s also been repeating “ashes ashes” over and over a lot. We weren’t sure what he was trying to say, and at first it sounded like “asher asher”. Finally it dawned on me that maybe it was from “Ring around the Rosey”, so I asked at daycare and found out that they sing that song with the kids. Now we sing it at home and Nathan sings “ashes ashes” with me at the end.

So I guess we’ve reached this new milestone where Nathan is clearly absorbing and remembering things and then able to go beyond just understanding and repeat what he learned. I thought it was cool when Gary pointed to a dog in a book and asked Nathan what it was, and instead of saying dog, Nathan barked. It was the first time I saw him make a leap like that and, as usual, as with all these new things, I got really excited and probably annoyed the crap out of Gary as I repeated over and over for like 5 minutes how cool it was.

Nathan also has a few new words:
Up
Hi
No (sounds like Nnnnno. Used to be more like Nuh)
Thank You

(All words so far: Dog, Duck, Cat, Fish, Daddy, Mama, Ball, Apple, Cracker, Airplane, Hi, Up, No, Thank you, Opa)

He also Meows and makes noises for a chicken now (sounds a little like the duck noise- Qaa Qaa). And I started teaching him to put his hand up under his armpits for a monkey and he’ll do that sometimes when we make monkey noises. Other things are making vroom vroom sounds for cars (he’s been doing that awhile) and he knows how to blow out of his mouth now. We’ll have to break out the bubbles again soon.

Oh! He’s also cutting his 10th tooth! Its the fourth bottom tooth. And I think he’s getting his first bottom molar too.

Just some fun pictures from the other weekend. The water was kind of cold, so Nathan didn’t want to sit down, but he had plenty of fun anyway.

Water Play

He kept pouring the water out of the cup, sometimes trying to throw it outside the pool and sometimes up in the air so it would fall back on his head.

Toothy Grin

Just having fun.

Where’d the airplane go?

We heard an airplane, but never saw it. Nathan had been pointing up at the sky, and then this was the look he gave me after he realized it was going away without him getting a glimpse. He does this completely adorable gesture whenever he wants to say “where’d it go?” or “I don’t know”. Usually it comes with a shoulder shrug too (see the post about him chasing Aunt Julie’s cat.) It cracks us up every time.

More pool pictures in this album.

Um, yeah. I’m going to go cry in the other room now.
I’m not sad, just wistful and sentimental.

Ooh Kitty Cat!

Where’s he going, Nathan?
I don’t know.

There he is again!

Hi Kitty. Want to come home with me?

This was Dude, Aunt Julie’s family’s cat. Nathan had a great time chasing him all over their yard…though he wanted to interact with him only on his own terms. If Dude tried to come up to him to rub his leg, Nathan would back away.

And now we can add Meowing like a cat to the list of animal sounds, and “Hi” to the list of words!

Nathan had his first (very cute) go at dress-up the other day. He went into some of his lower dresser drawers and pulled out the PJ bottoms and swim hat first. After he walked around in that for awhile, he went back in and pulled out the sweater and olive hat. Both times he handed us the stuff to get help putting it on. Silly boy.