Feeding the Ducks

Daddy took a very long week end of leave for Mother's Day and today was the start! We started off with an unplanned trip to the duck pond in Bel Air (we also had a midwife appointment, but there will be more about that tomorrow.)

We had basically an entire loaf of bread and the ducks snatched it all up! We where swamped with ducks and geese. Johnny really enjoyed so many ducks, he kept yelling "see ducks" and bouncing around waving his arms while laughing. Where we nervous about letting him near some of the ducks who where very pushy about getting the bread, he even got nipped once, but didn't care!

We found a family of ducks with "baby ducks" and Johnny became attached to them. Daddy feed the big ducks so they would leave Johnny alone to feed the baby ducks.

He followed the baby ducks around throwing as much bread at them as he could.

But any animal that would come close enough to him would get some bread. But any time the pieces of bread didn't get directly to the birds he would pick it back up and carry it to the ducks to make sure every last crumb was eaten up.

Even when we ran out of bread Johnny wanted to get close to the ducks. He would pick up anything on the ground, including leaves and sticks, and try to get the ducks to eat them. He didn't chase the birds like he does the cat at home, he walked very slowly and carefully up to every duck just to see how close he could get. I am so glad we just decided to stop last minute and let Johnny "see ducks." It was wonderful to see him so happy and excited about something so simple, I have over 60 pictures!

He has more then enough energy to spare, however he is still having bad diarrhea that he can't control. I have a hard time believing that one spoonful of milk yesterday morning can cause two days of horrible poo, my poor baby!

First Trip of the Year to the National Zoo

Even though the excitement of Johnny's birthday is over, we still have Daddy home on his convalescent leave for another week! So we thought we would take advantage of the beautiful weather and take Johnny to see the animals at the National Zoo!

We loaded our wagon with a picnic lunch and headed to the metro station.

Once we walked up hill from the metro station to the Zoo we got right into seeing the animals and Johnny was very excited! If you look close you can see the cheetah walking away.

Here the emu was trying to escape and stood this close to us sticking his head through the fence over and over again.

It was still early in the season so there was a lot of construction going on and some of the exhibits where not open, like the elephant house, but the elephants where outside and Johnny LOVED it...I don't think he knew how big they really where.

He quickly learned the point of being at the zoo and started to run from exhibit it exhibit, find the animal and point it out to us.

Here in the small mammal house we tried to tell Johnny this is an armadillo, but he was convinced it was a rock and kept telling us..."no rock, rock" So why would he stick around to look at a rock where there are monkeys to be seen.

see...monkey!
A lot of the animals must have been excited to have people around because they where free and about, like this Prairie Dog. Of course Johnny started saying the animals where "stuck" I can't deiced if that was because some of them wouldn't move or because there where behind glass.

More monkeys!
Loven the really close meercats.

And then on to the big monkeys, he picked up quickly on the fact that there where Gorillas and knew the difference!

And then our picnic lunch...yum! But Johnny was very excited and wanted to get up and get on the move.

Monkey Daddy and Monkey Johnny on the big gorilla.

Headed into the reptile house, at first he was stuck on "dinosaur" as we told him what everything was he learned it very quickly.

I am not sure what lizard this is, but I love this picture of Johnny up sitting just like it and looking so carefully.

There where a lot of alligators and crocodiles, and at first Johnny wanted to see them all as close as possible, but when they started to open their mouths and swim toward him he started to back away. He didn't scream or yell, but my big boy was smart enough to know to be a little afraid and I am so proud that he figured that out, basically all by himself.

Big turtles where kind of interesting, but they moved so slowly that he lost interest quickly.

and look "INOSAUR!" This bronze skull was part of an big cat exhibit (even though the lions where off exhibit) as the biggest meat eater ever...it was very exciting.

This entire day was for Johnny and he loved the attention and the new animals and Mommy and Daddy loved seeing him so happy and learning. And yes that is my two year in a full 4T outfit!!

In the morning when we told Johnny where headed to see animals, we named off animals and Johnny asked "cow?" we said yes...and that was what he was excited about saying "moo moo."

Johnny taking his turn pulling the wagon.

But about 4 pm, after having been at the zoo for 5 hours we where all pretty tired, finishing up in the bird house which wasn't as exciting for Johnny as we thought it would be. On our way out we wanted to walk down the "Asia path" and see the pandas and giraffes and such, but still being chilly and not fully in season we saw nothing down that path. We where a little disappointed with how much of the zoo was still closed, but we had a blast and Johnny loved it too! I am so proud at how much of a little sponge he is! He wants to know everything. I have a million pictures from zoo, this is just some of them!

Walking back to the metro we saw many Cherry Blossom trees preparing to bloom and this one tree right out side of the zoo that was already in full bloom. Next week during the Cherry Blossom festival Grams, Pops and Uncle Tommy are taking Johnny and Ella to the museums and too see the full trees in bloom!

Halloween 2009

Our Halloween this year was a busy one! But super super fun!!!! We started at a local shopping area that had free trick or treating around the local businesses. Papa came with us and it was so much fun to see Johnny get excited about going from place to place....he knew he was getting candy, and before he got tired he would run, laughing.

His tail is fuzzy in this picture because as he walked it waved back and forth and was so so cute!

But Daddy we need to go to the next store...they have dum dums!

Running from store to store :)And picking out his own candy at Kohls. The only funny thing was that his costume had mittens for claws and made it hard for his to pick things up with one hand, by the end of the day he figured out how to hold something with both hands.

After two hours of trick or treating around the shopping area (and hitting every store) Johnny had a nap at Grams and Pops house and woke up to a party going on at Aunt Natnie's and Uncle Tommy's house! They threw the coolest Halloween party ever! We all had a great time!

This was Johnny's favortite part! "bobbing" for apples. At first he put his entire hand in the water, mitten claw and all, so we rolled up his sleves and he spent 15 mintes picking up and putting back the apples, he didn't care that they had prizes inside!

After the bobbing, we all sat down to decorate pumpkins! At first Johnny was sure what to do, but when we found the glitter paint pens he would have painted that pumpkin for hours!

Johnny especially loved Uncle Tommy reading storys. Johnny was such a ham, making noises and standind up to act out the story for everyone, and they all loved him too.

But then as the kids went looking for stuffed pumpkins, Johnny discovered these Halloween beach balls. This is Johnny after he attempted to carry 5 of them, but he had a ball. hehehe

Uncle Tommy and Daddy tried to scare Johnny by dressing Daddy up in this wolf man mask and gloves. Johnny (who had played with this mask and gloves the night before) knew it was Daddy right away and started moving the mask around to dig him out. (though Daddy did scare some other kids at the party, then let them throw balls at him to make up for it.)

We had to take a dragon break so Momma could clean it and get it dry for trick or treating, but smartly Grams and put Johnny super man pajamas on under his costume. By day a dragon, by night he is SUPER MAN! answering a call from the mayor to save the world again!

Here is Uncle Shawn (a knight, Grams made the cloak and shirt) and little Samantha a tiny little monster!

Super Man needed a break from saving Metropolis and have a snack. Aunt Natnie made this yummy and cute pumpkin cheese ball! Johnny really liked it, he would take the crackers and dig right into it, then lick of the cheese and dip again, until we showed him he could eat the cracker.

I just thought that the dragon playing the piano was pretty cute.

Daddy made the mistake of laying on the floor, Johnny enjoying crawling to him and then jumping on him!

After the party it was time for trick or treating. Johnny started the evening by helping Uncle Tommy give out candy. He did GREAT! I was so proud at how well he gave to others, he knew he had a big bowl of candy and he enjoyed putting it in the bags of other kids.

We took the candy and animal crackers we bought for the trick or treaters to Uncle Tommy's house since we knew we wouldn't be home all evening, he very wonderfully gave it all out for us, with Ella's help.

"grrrrrr, Godzilla does not give candy to kids without a costume, grrrrrr!"

After a little time of giving candy out, it was Johnny's turn to get some. He was a great little dragon and everyone loved him! We only did about 2 blocks, then Johnny was just tired! It was a busy day!


Just a little flash back, here is Johnny last year, at 7 months old on his first Halloween as a little stinker :)

Hope your Halloween was as fun as ours!