Wild Kingdom

We discovered a great new (to us) zoo in Reston. Way better, in my opinion, than the National Zoo. We could let Henry run around and interact with the animals and not feel like he was going to be lost in the hoards of people or snatched by someone wanting to sell him on the black market. Okay, I digress, but this is a real fear of mine.

Be happy that you are not in Billy's shoes.

Okay, the zoo! We went with Johnny, Jamie and Natalie Jane (Henry says, "Nat-Jane")

Henry's bitter because he can't drive the tractor. "Wanna' drive the tractor, wanna' drive the tractor." Never mind that there was an enormous bison running straight for us or an ostrich ready to peck our eyes out and two camels circling the Zoofari Wagon Ride. Okay, the ostrich was actually not after our eyes, but her beak was obnoxiously huge!

Henry's first pony ride!

Look at that form!

When we started to feed the animals the bottles, Natalie-Jane got upset thinking it was hers. Cute.

Okay, so I enjoyed this a little too much. Henry? Not so much.
Problem?

We've also noticed lots of crawly things around the house.

Henry to Mr. Caterpillar: "Want some pop-icicle?"

Yes, he says "pop-icicle" Love it!

Up close. We also have some new residents under the deck. Don't freak out, Mom. We noticed when mama Robin was building the nest. So it has been fun talking to Henry about the Robins protecting their nest and now that the eggs have hatched, when he sees a Robin (or sometimes just a bird), he says, "Daddy gettin' food for the babies?" or "Shh, quiet. Baby Robins sleeping."

Can't wait to watch them learn to fly.

Here are the sequence of pictures:

Keeping up with the earthy theme, we're working on our garden. We do have a shade problem though so most of our vegetables and flowers will need to be put into containers. Here's Henry planting his beans into a mason jar so that he can see the roots. The plants are now about an inch high and he can identify the roots of a plant.

So I can check that off of the Kindergarten curriculum!

;)

Aaaand, the caterpillars have become butterflies!
I don't think he gets this concept though. Working on it!

"Okay, don't like it, don't like it!"