Zoo Babies

This year we have gone to the Indianapolis Zoo a ton. In fact, most weekends it seems we stop by, at least for a little visit. North LOVES animals and so it's a great place for us to enjoy each others company, spend some time outdoors, and see something that really delights North.
Over the winter it was great because most weekends, it was just us wandering around the deserted place.
Now that the weather has warmed, the crowds have returned but that's quite a bit of fun too. Spring has hit and we get to see all the zoo babies that it has brought with it. Also, the plains animals are back to being happy in their outdoor habitats and North really loves to see happy elephants, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, and lions.
Here are some pictures from a fairly recent trip.

a sea-lion performing on the sidewalk right in front of us!

checking out the new baby lemurs on lemur island.

baby elephant! we recently saw the baby going for a swim and squirting water from her trunk--this really pleased North.

baby giraffe!

Rhinos!

Baby baboons!

Egg hunt egg-stravaganza

This year North got to participate in 2 egg hunts.

The first was at Nana & Granddad's with his cousins Connnor, Madi, and Clay. Madi and Connor were good little egg-hunters while North and Clay were a bit less interested in the activity. Perhaps next year they will have caught on a bit more.

Admittedly, it is a rather confusing behavior. I think he thought of it as having to clean up toys --something he's not that into. And since North doesn't eat much candy he wasn't really sure what to do with the candy filled eggs I fear. But he gathered a few up.

Here he is observing the goings-on:

and picking up a few eggs:

Then he got distracted by toys and an old stationary bike:

Clay was also a bit confused by it all:

But he picked a few up too (with a little bit of Connor's help):

Madi & Connor were very generous with their eggs though and shared with Clay & North. Here is Madi dividing up her collection:

All the kids got ears from Nana--but they refused to wear them for longer than 2 seconds each. North very briefly being a lamb:

Connor doing the same:

Clay was a good sport about it though. He wore his bunny ears quite well:

And speaking of Clay, while visiting for Easter we got to celebrate his first birthday!

Can't believe he's getting so big!

North loves his cousins. Connor taught him to ride the broomstick-ponies that Nana & Granddad have at their house and North followed him around for quite a while.

Saying bye to baby Clay:

This was the first visit where North attempted to ride the motorized toys that Nana & Granddad have at their house. He did a pretty great job driving:

I think he had a great day at Nana & Granddad's celebrating Easter.

Then on Easter Sunday, he got to have another egg-hunt after the Easter bunny visited our house and hid eggs filled with little toys around the backyard for him to find. He wasn't very interested until he realized that there were toys that he really wanted inside the eggs.

Like this tiny dinosaur:

or some match-box cars:

and he found lots of parachute men and a chocolate bunny on the trampoline:

First bite of the chocolate bunny:

second MUCH bigger bite:

yum!

after being told he'd had enough bunny for the moment:

He quickly recovered though when reminded of the toys he had just gotten. Here he is wearing Thomas the Train as a hat:

Laying around with daddy and Ender. We spent lots of time doing this that Sunday:

Trains!
Sweet boy

Where a kid can be a kid

A couple of weeks ago we got to go to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Lincoln turning 3.
None of us had been to Chuck E Cheese's in a good long while--in fact North had never been--so we really didn't know what to expect.
It was a total wonder.
Chaos and pizza and ski-ball and a dancing giant robot mouse.
North was amazed. As were we all.

Turns out North is TERRIFIED of man-sized mice who dance.

Lincoln wasn't so sure about them either.


They did like the pizza though

and cake

Lincoln got a birthday crown (full of tokens)

Some of the flashing, whirring, singing game machines delighted North.

Others creeped him out.

Overall though, I think he had a great time.

And was thoroughly exhausted by the end.

More Friends...

We have some routines in Bloomington that I realized I have never included in the blog even though they are a big part of North's little list of experiences and favorite things at present.
One of these I have mentioned which is the dog park. But I haven't mentioned that often when we go, we try to meet up with one of North's caregivers, Samantha, her dog Millie, and her fun little family. And afterwards try to grab dinner with them.
In fact, I'm pretty sure North thinks that Samantha actually lives at the dog park. Whenever we drive past it he says "Manta?". And on the occasions we have been without them, he looks around saying "My Manta?" and shrugging at us.
Samantha has a fun puppy Millie who is very fast. Ender is kind of in awe of her. End can't keep up with her at all but she likes to watch Millie do her thing.
Likewise, Samantha has a sweet son named Max who North can't keep up with but is in total awe of.
Here are some phone-photos from our last trip:

The Milners (minus the cat)
Samantha & daughter Ruby (& Millie, Ender, & Mason in the background)

cutie-pies Ruby & Max

petting a cute dog name Bagel.

Max caught a moth

Another such routine is eating dinner on Monday nights with a group of Bloomington friends. Our friends Carrie, Tim, Josh, Colleen, Will, and Kevin have a communal dinner each and every Monday and we try to attend most weeks. Our friends Jeremy & Jimmy often also attend when they are in the area.
North tends to be pretty shy in large groups but has been in attendance enough that he's warmed up to the idea of the Monday night dinners.
I never ever snap any pictures at them--probably why they haven't been mentioned on the blog until now but, recently did get one of North & Colleen when Colleen was holding North up to gaze at their sleeping puppies Joaquin & Joanna. North really likes dogs. and Colleen.

More photos coming soon...