London goes to the ZOOB!

Today we took London to the Oakland Zoo. He loved it.


First stop: the giraffes. I think they're my favorite zoo animals. You can see one of the zookeepers feeding them here.


This sneaky guy got caught reaching into the cookie jar.


They don't look particularly comfortable sitting down.


I've always been mad for turtles. When I was little, my favorite zoo animal was the giant tortoise. This guy here is from Aldabra, in the Indian Ocean, not the Galapagos Islands, which are in the Pacific. A passing zookeeper told us that he is more than 100 years old. There's a pretty good chance that this tortoise hatched out of his egg before the Wright brothers made their first powered flight (1903). Definitely before the Model T (1908), before Teddy Roosevelt left the White House (1909), and before the first of my grandparents was born (1911). That's pretty darn old.


Some of the tortoises stayed inside. London saw them, too.


He and his momma rode a big fake tortoise.


He even played tortoise himself.


We saw an alligator laying on the grass right by the fence.


The zoo had a big kid's play area, with big lawns, picnic tables, cute critters like lemurs and otters, and stuff to play on.

We didn't see everything at the zoo. After a couple of hours of roaming around, it was time to find some lunch and a nap for Tiny Man. Also, we blew off a few critters so London could have a ride on the zoo train. The only ones I regret are the elephants and what London calls the "zebrabras". But it was still a great day.

Thomas is EVERYWHERE!

Thomas the Tank is the fourth member of our family right now. We ran into him last night at one of our favorite bookstores.

-Vicki

Winter in Berkeley-

We are enjoying some non-rainy decidedly non-winter weather here in Berkeley. London and I went on a walkabout Friday and I tried to capture some of the natural beauty - especially my child.
--Vicki

London's Big Achievement!

London went peepee in his big boy potty on Thursday all by himself. He was enjoying some naked time before his bath, and I asked him if he needed to go peepee. He just ran into the bathroom and did it. So we celebrated with a family happy dance. And playing in the bath tub. That's always a favorite.
-Vicki

More of London's words

AARRRGGGHHH!!!

Sorry I haven't gotten any of the Christmas pictures posted. I am neck deep in the dissertation, and it's not going to get any better for about two months.

Still, I figured I owed you an explanation. And as long as I'm here, London has been saying the coolest stuff lately.

a-nom-us tractor

Mom (my mom) and I took London on a walk one afternoon at Christmas time. London was totally fascinated with Dad's tractor lawnmower. He wanted to go sit on it every afternoon. Mom and I were trying to head him to the road and he kept saying, "Tractor, tractor." I kept saying, "I promise we'll go see the tractor when we get back." Eventually he came with us, but he kept saying, "A-nom-us tractor. A-nom-us tractor." It took us a while, but we figured out that "a-nom-us tractor" was his best shot at "I promise tractor".

Gamma yock

On the same walk. "Gamma yock" is "Grandma rock". It means, roughly, "I found this rock for you, Grandma. Please take it."

Pace-farter

This one started up over Christmas and it's still going strong. "Pace-farter" is London's best attempt at "pacifier".

I yike. Froot.

Two things about London's speech. He speaks most naturally in two syllable chunks. So longer speeches have distinct pauses, which I'm translating here as full stops. Also, he has trouble with Ls and Rs. Hence e-yock-et (rocket), yock (rock), and yike (like). And of course Yundin (London).

Yook! Car cominin'!

"Yook!" We hear that a lot. London tends to double the -ing at the end of words. "Car cominin'." "I payinin'."

Daddy! Pay tains!

Daddy! Play trains! In London's defense, he mostly says this when I'm not playing trains. Although sometimes I am on the floor, at the train track, with a train in my hand, and he thinks I'm just not playing hard enough. What a taskmaster!

I. Farrr-ted.

Don't know who taught him this one. Possibly his cousins. All we know is that one day he started saying, "I. Farrr-ted." Or, "Daddy. Farrr-ted." Or even (don't tell her I said this), "Momma. Farrr-ted."

Bye-bye. Moon.

We go for walks every day. Either a short walk around the block when he gets home from daycare, or a walk to the park on the weekends. Whenever we walk away from anything, London says bye-bye. Doesn't matter if it's a person, an animal, a tree, or what. He's mad for airplanes, and when they get far enough across the sky that they're about to go out of sight, he says, "Bye-bye. Airpane." The best thing is when the moon is out in the day. London will point and shout, "Moon!" We'll look at the moon for a minute. Then he'll say, "Bye-bye. Moon," and we'll keep walking. I guess he expects the moon to go away, like everything else does when you walk away from it. But then half a block later..."Moon!"

No. Dadda. Yundin.

The other night we were driving to the grocery store and London kept saying, "No. Dadda. Yundin." Which struck us as odd, because he's quite the daddy's boy and he has always called me "Daddy", not "Dadda" (when he first started it was Dad-Deeee!!). The next day we got the full story. One of the girls at his daycare had been playing house and kept calling London "Dadda". London didn't like it, and eventually he told her firmly, "No. Dadda. Yundin!"

Strawbabies

The other night Vicki cut up some strawbabies for desert. This is just about the cutest thing ever.

Back-belly

What London calls his back.

Milk juice

Anything that you drink out of a sippy cup is come kind of juice. Currently, there are three kinds: milk juice, water juice, and juice juice. "Juice" was his first word, back in the day.

I yuv you. No much.

"I love you so much." Hard to hear without getting tears in your eyes.