"Diss" and that!

So, we decided to take the short trolley ride to the nearby Philadelphia Zoo for Ivy's first zoo outing! This pic is quite typical of most of the day - Ivy happily perched in her Ivy-pack (waaay better than a stroller - she could actually see everything!) with the now-telltale pointer finger. She has always been a curious little georgette - aware of everything and everyone and not wanting to miss a beat. Lately however, with her vocabulary seeming to explode (see list at right), she will point her little hand quite decisively and say "diss!" It sounds like "this" to us, and each time we are happy to follow her magic wand-like hand, giving her the words to help open new facets of her world every day! We are really amazed at how fast she picks up the words and sounds (I'd like to think it's from musical mama!??) and it is such a joy to hear her use them...you can literally almost see the wheels spinning in her brain as she listens to each new word over and over before trying to recite it herself.

Those elephants are great, dad, but I think I see a little guy over there I'd like to check out...Seriously, we think Ivy had almost as much fun watching the children as well as the animals at the zoo.

"I'm a peek-a-boo-bear rabbit!"

"Can I ride him? Can I? Can I?!! Oh, pleeeeease!!!!"

Their eyes freak daddy out, but I'll stay here all day petting, if mommy will only let me...

The children's/petting zoo was, by far, the highlight of Ivy's first adventure at the zoo. Although she loved to look at the rest of the animals from her perch, she would get soooo excited when allowed to pet the goats here - she'd bounce her legs up and down and smile and talk to them...I'm pretty sure they understood her, too, as sweetness seems to be a universal language!

Pucker up!...giraffe kissing!
Just chillin' with my dad while he drinks his coffee...