The Small Family     

Saturday was safari day! We went to the Virginia Safari Park with my aunt and uncle, and a great time was had by all! We spent an hour or so walking through the more traditional "zoo" part, which had, among many other animals, lots of babies! The baby goats and baby Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs were my favorite, but the baby llamas and baby lemur were very cute, too. They also had a few types of small primates, a couple tigers, an Andean condor (huge!), a section where you could walk in the kangaroo habitat, and a neat aviary with some brightly colored pheasants that I've never seen before. Very cool place! I think Theo's favorite part was looking at the flowers along the way. That kid may grow up to be a naturalist someday--he is just nuts about flowers, trees, and grass!

After a picnic lunch, we all boarded a wagon (pulled by a tractor, which Theo loves!) for an hour-long safari ride. LOTS of cool animals! We each had a bucket of feed, and we were allowed to feed any of the animals except zebras (which apparently are surly critters--who knew?!). Theo was getting tired, so he was a little quiet on the ride (and later a wiggly worm!), but the rest of us really enjoyed it. My favorites were the camels, which would steal the buckets of feed. One camel ate the plastic bucket! I also liked the Watusi (like a big cow with large horns) and the bison. Please enjoy the Gallery of Tongues photos shot by Chris during that part of the safari when you look at the pix!

Theo fell asleep within about five minutes of getting in the car, so we dropped Sally and David at their car and continued to drive west, in the Allegheny Mountains, to get him a nap. Another beautiful drive, and another good nap for the boy...

We split up for part of the evening--Chris, David, and Theo went to Ruby Tuesday for dinner, while Sally and I had a nice dinner at the restaurant at their community. (It's a sit-down restaurant somewhat fancier than their dining room at the community, so not really Theo-friendly. So we had a nice girls' night and let the guys go out for burgers and such!)

We all reconvened for a marching concert, courtesy of my uncle, who is a big fan of Sousa marches and the like. He played us CDs of three different marches he particularly enjoys, and we all had fun marching (or dancing, in Theo's case) along! After the three songs were over, Theo asked for more, and so the concert went on!

I think all the excitement wore the boy out. When we got back to the hotel, we rewarded his good behavior that day with a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode, and instead of asking for a second show when it was over, he turned around and said, "Bed, please!"  Boy is that a rarity--the kid asking for sleep!!

After spending a few hours with my aunt and uncle Sunday morning and having lunch with them, we headed for Charlotte, NC, from where we would fly home early the next morning. The drive was beautiful, and we had a tasty Mexican food dinner before going to bed. I'm happy to report that the flight home was as uneventful as one can expect with a two-year-old in tow. His fussiness was pretty minimal for the most part, and we actually got several compliments from other passengers on how well-behaved he was.

And before I close our vacation posts, I have to share one developmental detail that just astounds me. You may recall that I mentioned a few weeks ago that Theo seems to be doing some pre-reading things lately. He pretends to read, and he is getting the idea that letters make sounds that make up words. Well, when we got to the airport in Sacramento on the first day of our trip, I was amazed when he pointed and said, "Stop!" I figured he had seen a stop sign somewhere, but no--he was pointing to the word "Stop" on an LCD sign. It wasn't an octagon shape, and it didn't look at all like a stop sign, so I was shocked to see that apparently he recognizes that letter combination.

 And then in the Dallas-Forth Worth airport on the way home from our trip, I commented to Chris as we went down an escalator, "Hey, that's funny that they use the word 'toilet' on the signs. Usually you see 'restroom' unless you're in Europe." I didn't point to the sign in question (as I had my arms full of Theo and a carry-on bag), and there were tons of signs around for different gates, places to eat, etc....so I certainly didn't think Theo would have any idea what I was talking about. But 20 minutes later, as we were walking in another part of the airport, he said, "Toilet!" and pointed to the sign that said "toilet." I'm still baffled as to how he recognized that word! It's not like we've ever pointed it out and said, "This says 'toilet.'" I just made that one offhand remark to Chris without even pointing to the sign, and Theo later found the word on a different sign altogether. Wow...that kid never ceases to amaze me. It will be a lot of fun to watch him continue to expand his vocabulary and play with new words!