Saturday, May 12, 2007

Miles Goes To The Zoo

Come visit the Denver Zoo with Miles.....




















......he had a great time!


Thursday, May 10, 2007

Mommy's Day Out

Miles told me today that he wanted to take me to the Denver Zoo for Mother's Day. So of course I thought it was a brilliant idea. It is going to be in the low 80's and sunny on Saturday, perfect zoo walking weather and unlike Busch Gardens, we will try to be there early enough to take advantage of all of Miles' non-grumpy time. He really loved the animals at B.G. so we think he will have a great time at the zoo. He is just old enough to enjoy it and young enough to still get in for free.

If you have a kid under two, it is recommended to take them as many places as possible that they might even remotely understand, because once they turn three, they will pay the same admission generally until they are 18. Free is always better and apparently their intellect changes enough after two to warrant a fee, so it's best to squeeze in as much as possible in those first two years of life. We hope to find a few more things here in Colorado before Miles crosses that expensive bridge. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to get to Disney while in Florida, mainly because we didn't want to make the hour and a half trip there and back and we were a little nervous about dishing out that much cash for Miles' first amusement park trip. Busch Gardens was a good introduction and we all had a lot of fun.

Tonight Miles and I sat at the computer and visited the Denver Zoo website. They have a little interactive part that allows you to click on different animals at the zoo and it will give you info about each of them. We spent about 20 minutes looking at the different mammals, fish, and birds and he really seemed interested in the pictures of each of them. I doubt we will get to see all that we looked at tonight on Saturday, but I really get a kick out of watching Miles sponge up knowledge like that. He truly seemed interested in each picture and he especially liked all the funny animal noises I would attempt to make. He humors me by giggling often and likes to imitate some of the sounds that are familiar to him. There is nothing cuter than hearing a 14 month old croak like a frog.

Although Miles doesn't talk much yet independently, he repeats words and phrases way above his level. He has a book about a fish and every time we get to the octopus I say "oct-to-pus" and he points at it and repeats it several times. He repeats phrases like "all done" and "I love you" and will even say "night night" on his own without being prompted. I do worry that he barely ever says daddy, and I think he may or may not have said mama yet, but "owside doddies" (outside doggies) and "tut-an-row" (tuck and roll) are everyday terms, along with pointing and grunting "aaaa" every time he wants something. I tell him "if you want something you have to use big boy words" and then I ask him if he wants the "juice" he replies by grunting "aaaa" again and I give in by placing the juice in front of him which he in turn chucks at me out of frustration. This way neither of us gets what we want. 14 months is such a great age......

We will take lots of zoo pictures and will make sure to post some next week. Hope everyone has a great Mother's Day.