Walking Josh

Hi from Josh

Josh after a particularly fruitful lunch today. Happy Friday!

Assorted weekend photos

Spring is here! And with it a pair of ducks in the stream

This is a hold-over from our Easter trip: Josh looking longing out the front door at the sunny world outside

The local mall just got a LEGO store! Susan and Sam and Josh stumbled across it while shopping for shoes on Friday. Sam was thrilled! We went back Sunday and he spent several weeks' allowance. Happy, happy, happy.

Zoe enjoyed the nice weather on Sunday. High of 83 today! Back down to the 50s tomorrow, but we won't complain.

Joshie enjoyed a walk with Susan this morning. When presented with a dandelion he put  the entire head in his mouth. Susan did her best to convince him that was a bad idea

It may not be immediately obvious, but Sam is in heaven. He is standing in front of the new Lego Store at Eastview Mall.

He is also wearing a sticker on his sweater which has a 73% chance of going through the wash and ruining the sweater.

Easter in Columbus, Part 1T

The weekend started with a visit from Aunt Carolyn. Very fun  to reconnect and hear about  Carolyn's travels--and introduce Josh! Sam had a great time playing a fifteen-peg-triangle game which A.C. gave him. Down to just two pegs! :-)

Saturday afternoon was spent at the world-famous Columbus Zoo. Here's Kevin at the start of the visit

Rochester has a nice zoo, but smaller, and hemmed in by downtown and the mighty Genesee river. So every animal we have is old hat. Amur tigers? Yawn. But the ones we don't have? Cool! Such as this moose. Columbus has a great North American exhibit.

We spent a lot of time in the new bear exhibit. The polar bears have a large pool stocked with, I think, trout. At least, they made us hungry the way trout do. Here's Nana pointing out to Sam some of the wildlife.

A nice petting zoo too

Including pony rides! Sam's on Danny the Pony, who is Sam's age, actually

This is a holdover from the Montessori Spring program. Here's Sam hanging with his class. All girls. The bossy second-grade girls are in the middle. They pick on all the first graders. They've been good for Sam; he's learned to take them with a grain of salt. For some reason here I think of him as a young Jimmy Stuart, slouching as he waits for the program to begin. No idea why he brings that to mind

A relaxed arctic fox

There's an underground portion of the polar-bears aquatic  living area--where you can look up through the water to see the other visitors. In this case, Stu, Kevin and Emily, for whom we no doubt looked like we were swimming with the fishes

...more tomorrow...

Montessori Spring Celebration

The Montessori Spring Celebration, which launches spring break for the school. All classes participate in a presentation for the parents. Sam is now with the old kids. This year they wrote a spring poem as a group, and recited it.

Sam's on the right in red, white and blue. Some of the bossy second-grade girls are in the front. ;-) The tall girl is a fifth grader who has joined the class. She's also the one who introduces the poem, though it's hard to hear her introduction over the sounds of the younger kids nearby.

At the end you get a primo view of the back of Sam's teacher's head.

Josh playing with trains at the library

Josh, pleased, at lunch

Josh, passed out at an Italian restaurant near Dupont Circle in D.C

Two small steps for a boy...

Above: Not staged at all.

Josh took his first two steps today! He was tentative, watching our rivetted faces while he did it.  Then we all applauded vigorously and he beamed, clapping too, knowing he'd done something really good. :-)

* * *

I'd finished a lullaby and Sam, silent for a couple of minutes, said out of the blue, "Did Cleopatra have a candy dish?"

Can't make this stuff up.

* * *

Earlier today:

Me: Sam, you are going to break a lot of girls' hearts one day
Sam (with some interest): How many?

* * *

From the week before last, during our D.C. trip, Susan had this exchange with Sam:

Me, during lunch on our first day at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History this week: Sam, are you excited that we're going to see the Hope Diamond next?
Sam: Yes, but what I'm really interested in is this Cheeto shaped like a wishbone.

Oh: Made a chocolate cake to share with our pastor's family, who joined us for dinner Saturday night. Very pleasant!