Sunday, May 24, 2009

Liam is fabulous!

Liam and I were reading "Llama Llama Misses Mama" before bed the other night (as we do almost every night), when he made the following observation:

"Mama Llama has a purse."

He leaned back against the headboard and put on his very best pout. In a sad little voice, he said, "Baby doesn't have a purse." ("Baby," if you don't already know, is how Liam refers to himself.)

"I have to buy one."

That's Mama's baby! He loves shoes, and now purses, too!

Elephant Odyssey at the Zoo

Last Saturday, because we're gluttons for punishment, we took Liam to the Zoo... for the grand opening of their newest exhibit... on Memorial Day weekend!

We must have been living particularly exemplary lives lately, because we got there an hour and a half after opening & still managed to get a great parking place (thanks to Liam's favorite "blue placard"). We walked around the monkey and ape exhibits for a while and then sat down in the shade at a cafe while we waited for Aunt Jen.

The new exhibit is called Elephant Odyssey, and it is truly amazing. Here's a link to the Zoo's information about it: http://www.elephantodyssey.com/. The enclosure for the elephants themselves is 7.5 acres, divided in half for their Asian & African herds (they switch sides in the afternoons so that each herd has some time to play in the pool on the north end). The theme of the exhibit is sort of "San Diego, old and new," showcasing animals that lived here in the pleistocene era. So, the elephants are paired up with huge statues of mammoths, and the lion & jaguar exhibits have statues of saber-toothed tigers & a giant cave lion out front that kids (and grown ups!) can climb on, and there are condors, which have been here all along, and a bunch of other animals. Liam really loved seeing the llamas -- of course!

They have great play areas throughout the exhibit for kids. Besides the statues I mentioned above, there are a couple of areas where kids can "excavate" fake fossils, and some more traditional playground stuff, too.

There is also a very good restaurant, not a sit down place, but with actual tasty food! And it doesn't cost much more than their other restaurants, the ones with burgers that taste like the awful things in school cafeterias. Yay!

For those of you familiar with the Zoo, the new exhibit covers the area that used to be Hoof & Horn Mesa. I don't know what they did with all of the herd animals or the giraffes. I'm sure they're around the Zoo somewhere...

Here's a link to the pictures from our day at the Zoo. http://picasaweb.google.com/Liam.Camoras/20090523AtTheZoo?authkey=Gv1sRgCLCsw9iI8eON-AE#

Take me out to the ball game!

We went to the Padres - Cubs game today with Uncle Ryan & Aunt Judy. Cubbies got clobbered; lost the entire series, in fact. Liam has a new phrase, though: "go, Padres!" He liked the Cubs logo on my jersey, but he wanted nothing to do with saying "go, Cubbies!" Where are the little red Cs floating around in his bloodstream, I ask you???

Maybe with this generation we'll break the cycle of abuse!

Sundays are kids' days at Petco Park. The giveaway today was a Padres batting helmet, and every Sunday after the game, kids can go onto the field to run the bases. We were planning on doing that with Liam - cool! - but since the Cubs games here sell out, the line was insanely long. Maybe next year we'll take him to a game against some team nobody wants to see, like Milwaukee or the Washington Senators!

Also, we're pretty sure that the kids have to go onto the field by themselves, without parental help. Liam's very brave, but that's just too much for him. However, they have a mini-diamond in the "Park at the Park," which Liam ran with some help from Daddy. Here's a link to the video of their run. http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=Liam.Camoras&target=ALBUM&id=5340039620185547857&authkey=Gv1sRgCKamp9D9h7_0Xw&authkey=Gv1sRgCKamp9D9h7_0Xw&feat=email

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Sears Tower glass-bottom Skydeck

Who wants to walk on the "Sears Tower" glass bottom Skydeck?  We probably won't the next time we're in Chicago (Mommy hates the idea but says Daddy needs to get additional life insurance first if he's dumb enough to walk out there).



Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Mommy's a melty little puddle

Liam and I hung out today. We went to storytime & had pizza for lunch with Aunt Jen. We did some housework & played. We took a nap. We did some coloring & had dinner. We played at the park while Daddy did the dishes.

I usually get a recap of his day while trying to get Liam to go to sleep. Tonight, he grabbed my face to make me look at him and told me, "I had a good day with Mommy!"

Melty, melty Mommy...

Children's book fair

Saturday was the annual children's book fair, sponsored by the county library system. We took Liam, along with Rey's sisters Reynalyn & Roxanne. Liam had a great time!

We met one of his favorite authors, Antoinette Portis. She was reading from her new book, "A Penguin Story." When she finished up, she whipped out one of those giant pads of paper and showed us how to draw a penguin. I asked if she'd show us how to draw a bunny, too. She did, and then she signed the drawing and gave it to Liam. Then, best of all, she read "Not a Box" to us. Liam was ecstatic--his smile could have lit up an entire city. (The video is too big to upload here; I'll try to put it on You Tube or something) We got her to sign our copy of "Not a Box" and bought an autographed copy of "A Penguin Story," too.

The rest of the book fair was good, too. Lots of local bookstores had booths, and there were other authors reading & signing stuff. There was also meat on a stick, so we had a good lunch! And we got a balloon, so all in all, it was a pretty good day.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

What Liam's saying

"We're turn arounding!"

"Don't want Daddy to hold you."

"More abazon-e." (zabaglione)

"Dada has phone ears." (headphones)

"We're lightsabering!"

"Mama's baby."

"We're gonna put up the blue placard!" (Mommy's handicapped placard)

"Uh-oh, where is it?"

"Puffing down the track!"

"Foot and feet!"

"More massage the feet?"