My Manny and I went on several walks this past Summer, some of them all the way up to Elizabeth Park. The first time that we walked there I fell asleep on the way, and when he woke me up we were completely surrounded by ducks. I was very impressed! So impressed, in fact, that I decided to learn a new word, right there on the spot.
Another time we walked to the center, and on the way we saw a green heron - a very beautiful bird! Here is a picture of it sitting on a rock in the brook, with a handy arrow to indicate its exact position...
...and here is another picture of the same species of bird, stolen from the intartubes, and likely not taken with a cameraphone at a great distance...
After we saw the bird on our walk, we went right to the bookstore to grab a Sibley guide and look it up. At a distance we thought it might be a young blue heron, but when we spotted the listing for the green heron we knew that's exactly what it was. Here is a photograph of our moment of discovery:
And what I said before about the Summer heat baking the brain is definitely true. How else can you explain why I would try to balance a horse on my head? Handy tip: If the weather is very warm, a stuffed horse atop the head will not help to keep you cool.
Hello everyone! Please forgive my long absence from the blog. One thing that I've learned in my first turn through the seasons is that the heat from the summer sun tends to bake the brain a bit, to slow the synapses, to make the mind meander. But when the weather cooled and the leaves began to turn from green to red - so beautiful! - I suddenly felt myself come back to my senses, and then I came back to the blog. Look at these pumpkins!
I'm not quite walking yet but I've really got this crawling thing down, and I scoot all over the house wherever I please. Clyde the cat doesn't know what to think, and still looks shocked when he sees me chasing after him now. In fact, just the other day I was playing with him in the living room when he got up and walked into the kitchen. I followed right behind him, but he wasn't in the mood to play anymore and he went right up the stairs.
Well, I'd never yet climbed up a single stair, at home or anywhere else, but I didn't see why I shouldn't at least try to - everyone else seems to have a pretty fine time tromping up and down staircases all day long. So I first got one knee up, and then the other, I wobbled and I wiggled and I climbed up onto that bottom step. My Manny was very impressed (he'd followed me into the kitchen as I followed Clyde) and offered much enthusiastic applause.
Well, he was even more impressed when I climbed up onto the second step. And by the time I squirmed up onto the third he was in complete shock and hovering right behind me, trying to keep me safe, looking worried that I might fall at any moment or wrong move. But I didn't fall, and I didn't misstep. I kept on climbing up and up and up until I made it aaaaaalllllll the way up to the top, up to the second floor of the house.
How 'bout that? I woke up in the morning having never yet climbed a stair in my short little life, and all of the sudden I had climbed a whole flight of them - fourteen stairs! It was pretty exciting, and my Manny told me he was very proud of me.
I said, You just wait. I said, This is just the beginning.
