July Events
Franklin Park Zoo Trip
On the free zoo day of the summer, Marcus's daycare had a fieldtrip there. I went along--it's actually extremely convenient to get there from our house (walk 4 blocks to the end of Columbus, hop on a bus at Ruggles straight to the door of the zoo)--and we had a really enjoyable day. Yes, it was raining quite hard in the morning, but then it cleared up around 11:00. Marcus loved the gorilla house--he didn't really care much about the outdoor animals, who were probably too far away and motionless to be interesting, but boy, he went crazy in the gorilla house, which has floor-to-ceiling glass so he was able to be nose-to-nose with the gorillas. He was banging on the glass with both hands, standing up, and making gorilla-like noises as though he wanted nothing as much as to be let into their happy enclosure. He also liked the tree frogs, snakes, and other animal behind the (thankfully soundproof, for the animals' sake) glass.
Swimming Lessons
Robert and Marcus continue to have a great time at their swimming lessons. Baby has perfected the "reach and grab" (sort of a game/drill that gets him making front-crawl-like movements with his hands) and was kicking up a storm. The only problem is the balls and rubber duckies sometimes are a little too distracting from the lesson!
"Isis Babies" Joint First Birthday Party Picnic
Five of us mom-and-baby pairs met up at the Prudential to have a joint first birthday party for all our "Isis Babies" who met in the Next Steps Baby Group last December. The three boys and two girls all turn one between July 20th and August 22nd, so we had a picnic with cupcakes and singing and a Yankee swap kids' book instead of individual presents.
Before we went outside, while we were still in the mall waiting for the last two babies to arrive, Marcus and Frankie and Casey had a great time toddling around together. They looked like a comedy trio as they bounced off each other and the walls.
Then, outside, Marcus and Isabelle got to open their books, as you can see below. The other babies were a little out of sync, but everyone got both cupcakes and presents in the end.
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Hm, interesting concept--we get presents? |
Cool. This is mine. She can have that hat. |
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No fair, Frankie crawled behind me and distracted me! |
Um. . . now she has a present too? |
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Wait, maybe I like her present more! |
No, I'm good--mine is tastier. |
Fun Playground Trip
On Sunday, after the swimming lesson we took the Silver Line to a deserted Myers & Chang and had a nice dim sum there until Marcus got restless. Then we went next door to the playground (on Washington, half a block from East Berkeley Street)--it was a great one because it had separate climbing structures for big and little kids, and Marcus could really climb around on the little-kid one. We spotted him, of course, but baby had a lovely time clambering over things.
