Kandula & Kidman

We ventured to the zoo Friday. The weather was awesome (high 60s in November - gotta love the Mid-Atlantic region). This trip we remembered to ask someone to take a family photo! It's not perfect but you can see all three of us.

We got an early start and made it to the zoo in time to see Kandula the elephant get his bath. There were some VIP-types checking it out too. At first, we just say guys in suits and I assumed it was political muckety-mucks. Then I noticed a tall slim blonde, who was way too fashionably dressed to be a political anything.

Lo and behold, it was Nicole Kidman! She's in Washington filming a movie. Sorry, we didn't take any pictures of her (it seemed so rude since she was about a foot in front of us). She was smiley and doesn't look so skeletally thin in person. She's in one of my all time favorite movies, Moulin Rouge, so I was very excited to see her in person.

We also saw the cheetah cubs, which are practically all grown up and the tawny frogmouths, Patrick's favorite bird. It was a great trip. As you can see below, all the excitement wore Kasper out.

Rock on, dude

Hat: $1.97 at Old Navy
Sunglasses: $2 at L.L. Bean outlet
T-shirt: $1.50 at local consignment sale
And yeah, that's a free tequila company maraca/bottle-opener from Margarita's in Lewiston.
I love homemade Halloween costumes.

Latest developments

See for yourself.

Start your engines

Kasper likes to be upright. This has been the case from the beginning and shows no signs of abating (which is probably good since walking upright seems to be big for us homo sapiens).

Against my better judgment, we got him a push toy. He pulls himself up on the handle and off he goes! He's great at the walking part, zooming around the apartment like he's one of the Duke Boys. He can see how much he enjoys it (and, yes, he's making the sort of very loud sound you would imagine by the look on his face).

Unfortunately, he hasn't figured out stopping. So, he just crashes. Into anything. Into everything. And it ends up looking like this. Do you think we'll be able to use these photos to postpone enrolling him in driver's ed?

Nature walk, urban style

Theodore Roosevelt Island is a nature sanctuary/national park/monument in the Potomac River between Virginia and the District of Columbia (if you've ever driven into the city on I-66, you've traversed the end of the island on the Roosevelt Bridge). It's on the way from from picking up Patrick at his office but you feel like you're way off in the woods (except the woods are in the very loud flight path of Reagan National Airport). It's a lovely spot. It's a nice taste of nature in our urban/suburban sprawl.
The bridge in the background is the Francis Scott Key Bridge between Rosslyn, VA and Georgetown in DC.

Fantastic Photo Friday

I have been informed (in no uncertain terms) that we have not updated the blog enough lately. Hence, I offer you a few snapshots of the ever-expanding Kasper (click on the photos to see a full-size version):


Visiting with his Mema last weekend (sorry, we didn't get a photo of him biting his napping grandfather's big toe)


Enjoying his first balloon


Showing us his tongue while wearing his "new" hand-me-downs from cousin Declan.

Howlin' wolf

The audio's a little rough, so turn the speakers up on your computer before you download this. It's worth it.

I haven't blogged in a while; luckily, Meaghan has been here to pick up the slack. Instead, I've been learning the tough lessons of parenthood. Here's what I've picked up lately:

• It doesn't matter how many times you say it, there's nothing that will make zucchini "yummy yummy yum." Conversely, there's nothing that can't be made "yummy yum yum" by dipping it in applesauce.


• To a baby, the noise made by the velcro tabs being pulled off a dirty diaper sounds like a starter's pistol.


• You can have five, you can have ten, or you can have 50, and you'll still find yourself standing by their crib at 1 a.m. saying, "Where the hell is that pacifier?"


• You can dress your little boy in the latest trucker chic, and the clueless, childless checkout guy at the grocery store will still tell you "she's so cute."


• Trashcans and toy baskets look a lot alike, except the stuff in the trashcan is way more fun to play with. And tastier.

Gotta go. Kasper just up from his morning nap, so I've got a diaper to change. Should I be worried that he's wearing track shoes?