After School

Recently, Sarah has developed a new after school routine.  I pick her up from daycare and drive her home.  As soon as we pull into the garage, she starts swinging her legs and laughing as she yells, "Mommy's car!  Mommy's car!" at the top of her lungs!  Then I unhook her from her carseat and she scrambles into the driver's seat where she "drives" my car for at least 15 minutes every afternoon.  She likes to turn the steering wheel and she really likes to turn on my hazard lights.  When she really wants to pretend to be Mommy, though, she grabs my travel mug and pretends to drink my coffee, too!

 

On this particular afternoon, Sarah grabbed my mug and wouldn't let go...

 

 

What a ham!

 

At one point, she walked over into the leaves that had fallen into our shade garden.  She plowed into them like she really liked them!  And then she did this:

 

I guess she didn't like the leaves in the yard after all, because once she stopped crying, she went to play on the deck.  Notice how she STILL has not put down the coffee mug!

 

Sarah must think that I have to take my coffee mug everywhere, because she loaded her her baby into the trunk of the Cozy Coupe and then got really upset that there wasn't room for the mug!

 

We managed to resolve the issue with minimal repacking, and Sarah was glad to have her hand free since she was driving carpool today...

 

 

 

Hoots and Howls

This Sunday was gorgeous!  We took advantage of the warm, sunny day and went to the zoo for Hoots and Howls.  Sarah didn't care much about participating in the Halloween crafts or listening to the free concert by the Doo-Dads, but she really enjoyed hanging with Nikita, the polar bear!

While we were watching Nikita swim in his tank, we heard a little voice calling Sarah's name.  It turns out that our friends, the Potters, were taking advantage of the nice day to go to the zoo, too!  Sarah and Jack are good buddies, and it was fun to see them interacting with each other as we all walked to the tiger exhibit.

It took Sarah a minute to figure out there were tigers behind that bamboo, but when she did, she was sure excited about it!

Jack stopped to pose for a few pictures with Sarah...

...and then we were off to the orangutan exhibit!  Orangutans?  Cool.  Tables and chairs next to the orangutans?  Way cooler.

As we were leaving the orangutans, Jack grabbed Sarah's hand and walked with her down the path.  It was so sweet, and I'm so glad that Jack and Sarah are friends!

Jack even stopped to pick up a leaf for Sarah to carry on their walk!  What a considerate young man...

When we got to the Australia section of the zoo, we said good-bye to the Potters.  They were going to listen to the Doo-Dads at noon, and we were going to see the kangaroos and go home for lunch and a nap!

We stopped to let Sarah play in the giant bird's egg outside the Australia aviary exhibit...

...and climb on the fence near the New Zealand Singing Dogs...

...and sit on a bench near the kangaroos...

...before ending up at the sheep farm.  Sarah was still not brave enough to touch the sheep, but she was excited to see them and keep yelling, "Ba, ba!"

Can you tell that Daddy and Sarah were both excited about the sheep? 

Sarah really enjoyed the rocks on the sheep farm, though!

As we headed back to the zoo entrance, Sarah stopped to check out the Hoots and Howls decorations.

She also found a new friend!

She found an old friend, too - her shadow!

She stayed with it until it disappeared into the bushes, and then Sarah waved bye-bye to her shadow! 

The last stop of the day was the zoo jeep ride on the way out.  One of these days she'll figure out that it actually moves if you put money in it, but for now, she's happy to just turn the steering wheel!

Of course, that leads to her thinking it's really fun to drive Mom's car in the garage, too!

  Let's hope she doesn't decide to drive herself back to the zoo!!!