Play Date

This weekend was so exciting. After we went to the zoo on Saturday, G'pa and Nana Adams went back to California and I went to my first ever play date. I met lots of new friends that represented a lot of different countries. I thought I was starting to understand what Mommy & Daddy say... but I didn't understand some of what was said at the play date. There was Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic and even Farsi being spoken. It was quite the UN of babies. Who knew the UN could be so fun... though there were issues with some people (me included) learning to share... hey... just like the UN!

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

Mommy and me finally got to go to the zoo!! We went with G'pa, Nana and Daddy. We saw lots of animals. Mommy made us look at all the marine life first.



(so much for not hitting the glass! At least, it made a cool picture.)


My favorite were the monkeys!! They jump around like me.




There were all sorts of strange animals. I liked them but none of them would play with me.



Daddy would. My favorite part was acting like a monkey. I got to climb up on Daddy's shoulders and jump up and down. I could see everything from up high. Next might be climbing trees. I successfully climbed a stair last night!

G'pa Jim & Nana Lynn

Back at home, we've been busy again. Grandpa Jim and Nana Lynn came to visit last week. At first I wasn't so sure about them. But then we had a lot of fun.





I showed off all of my new skills for them... like standing up...


eating all by myself...

crawling while carrying something (in my mouth)...

I even learned a new trick. I can take off the velcro holding the cabinet closed. And then I get to play with all of the video tapes inside. Yeah!

Tobago Day Trip 2: Englishman's Bay

We took a short trip north and along a bumpy dirt road to Englishman's Bay. There were about 4 other people on the beach. There were plenty of other things to do and see.



While Mommy & Daddy took turns snorkeling, I discovered sand. I didn't know what to do with it at first...



but then I discovered how to make a big mess. It was fun!



It was even better because it forced Daddy to wash me off in the waves.



I got to jump over the water and splash everywhere. Mommy also came out and we played in the ocean with ducky. I tried to swim to get Ducky and Mommy - my swim teacher would have been proud. :-)

After shock

As in most tectonic events, the pressure release from one event can cause increased pressure elsewhere... and you get an aftershock. In this case, I got a second tooth! Things come in pairs. The second tooth was much less painful... (or Mommy & Daddy weren't around when it came through, so we didn't hear the screaming).

On a different note: My grade in 'plays well with others' has improved. After being a cranky-puss with Grandma Lily and Auntie Ea, I decided to be nice to Grandpa Jim and Nana Lynn. We'll try to get some pictures of us playing up soon.

Recent eruption

I have to interrupt my Tobago trip (sorry for the post delays... Mommy's computer had a virus - Daddy blamed it on me) for this news flash.

I got my first tooth Saturday night/Sunday morning!! Its not much of a tooth yet but its through the gums. This leads me to deep contemplation about the world. I'm not old enough to have heard much of the creationism vs evolution debate - or to understand what I have heard... but I now have a life experience that says both must be wrong! Why would God torture innocent babies (aka ME) with a sharp object boring through their gums?!? It was a couple months of mild pain followed by a couple hours of PAIN in the middle of the night (Mommy & Daddy loved that too). What did I do? Creationism must be wrong, or God must be the same as the devil. That brings us to evolution... there must be a better way. If evolution worked, I wouldn't be getting one tooth at an agonising time. What am I going to do with one tooth?! One tooth is pretty useless. Two is better but still not great - especially if they're two next to each other, like my friend Adam. So my conclusion is that evolution must not be right either. Anyone have another alternative?

Day Trip: North

We took a day trip to the north side of the island. Castara is about half way up or down the island (the airport is in the south). We stopped in Speyside for lunch, to take a glass bottom boat tour, and to ask about diving... like I'd ever let Mommy & Daddy leave me for a couple of hours to go diving! Speyside was supposed to have great diving though. (Note from Mom: May be we'll end up back here some day... without the kid(s) or when they're old enough to dive themselves.) It was a nice little town, but we all agreed that Castara was better.



Speyside had a couple of islands in the bay (where the diving was good), but the beach was icky. I liked the beach well enough - there was a big pack of doggies to look at.



Even better than the doggies, a herd of goats came by! I couldn't decide watch to look at!



Even though the beaches weren't great and we missed the glass bottom boat tour, we did find some great views of nearby bays, beaches, and the rainforest.



(view of Charlotteville - the big expensive yachts are hidden by the trees.)

Castara

Next went to Tobago. That was another airport adventure. There are three planes that fly between Trinidad and Tobago. When we wanted to go... they had one. So after a pleasant 5 hour delay at the airport hanging out with Clare's family, we made it to Tobago and then along windy roads to Castara. It was a relaxing, little fishing village. Yet it was well supplied with a "supermarket" to buy diapers, a couple of decent restaurants, and a great beach with clear turquoise waters.

Mommy & Daddy spent a lot of time reading on the porch over looking the beach. I played in the room and on the porch.



It gave me a lot of time to practice my crawling and standing skills. I stood up by myself for the first time using the lounge chairs on the deck. I even got to 'free-range' as a naked baby for a while.



It was a nice little peaceful village tucked in the bay... well peaceful except for the rooster at 4 in the morning, the rain on the roof, and me! It would have been perfect with some A/C (or cooler temps) and fewer bugs.



(view from our porch)

Search for the Scarlet Ibis

We did a little sight seeing in Trinidad at the Bird Sanctuary - a huge area of mangroves where the national bird the scarlet ibis roosts and feeds. I got to go on my first boat ride. Its sounded a lot funner than it was. I could see lots of water but wasn't allowed to play in it! Boo!



Mommy got to play in the mangrove trees with the crabs, rats and snakes. Why couldn't I play in the water?



After a bit of pouting, we finally saw a good flock of scarlet ibis. They were crazy red. If you blow up the picture below really big, you can see the flock in the center. I guess it was one of those things that was better when you were there... though I honestly didn't think it was that cool when I was there either. The big people seemed to like it well enough though.