The Birthday Cake

Michael still wasn't quite sure what to think about the candle - which may explain the slow start. He kept poking his fingers into the hole left by the candle.

Once he got going, he sure had fun playing with the frosting. He got a kick out of grabbing a great big handful, eating a little bit, and then squishing the rest between his fingers.

He had a lot of fun with the cake, but I think he had even more fun taking a bath after. That boy loves the water!

The Zoo

On Michael's birthday, right before we went to the zoo, Dave turned the car seat around. Michael loves being able to face forward, kick mom and dad's seats, and see what's going on. And he loves playing with Cookie Monster while he's in the car (or Elmo, depending on which car we're in).



When we first started walking through the zoo, Michael was busy looking at all the people around us. (They're animals, too, right?) The first zoo animals that caught his attention were the penguins - probably because they were the first animals we saw that were actually moving.

The giraffes were walking around quite a bit. Michael watched one inside that kept walking around and around and around in circles. The zebras were a bit harder to see - there's actually two there.

We stopped and watched the elephant for quite a while. I think it liked being the entertainment. It walked toward us, made sure we were watching, and then started playing with the red ball. Michael liked watching it swing the ball.

When we got to the meerkats, there was one standing up looking out the window. Dave decided to slowly push the stroller up to one, so it would stay right by the glass for Michael to watch. Well, Michael wasn't watching the meerkat - he was paying more attention to the noisy people in the area. Dave got the stroller right in front of the meerkat, so it and Michael were inches apart. If you haven't seen a meerkat, they move fast! When it moved, Michael realized he'd been within inches of an unknown animal, screamed, and then cried. Dave thought it was hilarious. He was laughing so hard he couldn't calm Michael. It was kind of cute. The picture was taken shortly after the scare - notice the grip on the side of the stroller. After that, he paid much closer attention any time we stopped - especially if we were by glass.