RAWK!

Still Here!

So the late spring, early summeryness around here has been busy. Gus is now a disc golf addict along with his father, and they have been teeing off at the local course nearly everyday, but without a camera-- this will be remedied soon. Also, daily baby pool shenanigans, and we need to get a few snaps of Gus on his first "big kid" rides. He is suddenly tall enough for rides at the carnival part of the zoo, and one day, when mama wasn't there, Papa took Gus on the scrambler, the tea cups, and the flying elephant. I think that other kids as tall as Gus are not as young, but Gus apparently isn't telling. We're going through sunscreen like mamas go through coffee, and the camera's getting forgotten at the bottom of the mom purse. BUT, here's a quick snap on the way to disc golf and river hiking, to tide you over.

First Baseball Game

Our city has a AAA minor league team and Matt could barely contain himself waiting for opening day so he could start taking Gus this season. You have to understand, Matt was a boy whose parents owned a baseball card shop, who learned history/math/physics by studying box scores and cards, who went with his own father on a a cross-country visit-every-park trip, and who, well into his 30s, plays statistical recreation baseball with childhood friends. Matt and Gus at their first game, well, let's just say I'm shocked NPR didn't cover it.

It rained. And rained. But, like real baseball fans, they stayed. They ate a ridiculous number of peanuts, sang the national anthem, and Matt narrated every single play to Gus. Gus was completely riveted and was able to stay until the top of the 5th when a crazy homerun ball smashed into the metal bleachers in their section, scaring the crackerjacks out of Gus. Despite this, Gus has talked loud and long about his game, about the "homerun ball that went BOOM" and the man who yells "PEAnuts, POPcorn, and CRACKERjacks" and about "foul balls, steee-rikes" and runners who are "SUUUH-afe!" It's a love story for the ages, these dudes and baseball.

Dress-Up

Gus is really into dress-up and pretend, and his favorite sort of dress up is the kind where he can invent his outfit entirely from pieces of fabric or thrift store scarves. Here are some recent results from a day spent entirely outside with little more than a stack of fabric remnants, a basket of driftwood, a pile of rocks, and, natch, a string of Mardi Gras beads.

New babies and other little sprouts

Here is Gus watering his very own urban-style vegetable garden. He picked out all the plantings himself and included all of his favorites--lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, green beans, and okra. He is very serious about his little green "tiny baby sprouts."


And here is the zoo's newest baby--a boy. We've been over to the zoo a couple of times a week to watch his progress. Mama and baby are out only two hours a day for some indoor exercise (hence the poor pictures and poles blocking the shots), but the baby (yet unnamed) has already gotten bigger and a little more confident. Gus is very excited about this guy, to say the least. Personally, I am jealous of the mama elephant's trunk that she uses to push her babe around, lasso him, and to get him to look at her. That would be so useful with a two-year-old.