National Zoo/DC Part II

Here are the rest of my photos from DC. There are lots and lots, including more from the zoo (including naked mole rats!) and photos from museums and several boat rides. I love Washington DC!

Green and Yellow: Aftermath

I've heard your feedback loud and clear. Green and yellow is now out as a blog format. We're back to the old format.

Scooter

Today Daddy and I went for a scooter ride together. Daddy got out his Razor scooter, and he helped me build my Rallye scooter. We went to the park across the street and rode around. Mommy made sure I wore my helmet while riding my scooter. Scooter riding is fun...especially the downhill parts. The uphill bits are less fun. Here are some pictures of our adventures together.

See ya!

Lately, I've taken to saying "ya" instead of "you." Neither Mommy nor Daddy can figure out where I picked this up since neither of them talk that way. I told them that "ya" was a word I made up all by myself. Despite this considerable exercise in creativity on my part, neither of them seem to like using "ya" for "you."

Green and Yellow

Since green and yellow are my favorite colors, Daddy thought it might be fun for me to have a weblog look that is more in tune with my favorite colors. Please "vote" in the comments section for whether you like this version of the weblog or the earlier version.

Here's a New Orleans Tune

Since hearing about the flood in New Orleans, I've been quite interested in learning more about the place. One way I do this is to listen to lots of New Orleans music. Daddy has been singing me a couple of New Orleans songs I really like. They're especially good to sing along to or dance to. They are: "Iko Iko," which is a traditional Mardi Gras song, "Down at the Twist and Shout," which is a song about the zydeco group Beausoleil, and, of course, "Dixie." I asked Daddy what a "dixie" was and he told me it was a ten dollar bill in New Orleans. The "dixie" refers to "dix", the French word for ten.

Daddy has also exposed me to a Paul Simon song which refers to Clifton Chenier, the "King of the Bayou", but I don't like it very much.

National Zoo Part I

Here are some photos from one of the two days that Mommy and I visited the National Zoo while we were in Washington DC. We had to ride a bus and two Metro trains to get there. The travel is as good as the zoo itself! I got Mommy some free newspapers at the bus stop too! My absolute favorite zoo animals were the naked mole rats, but you will have to wait to see them a bit longer since they are not in this batch. You will see lovely animals like pandas, otters, giraffes and elephants though-- even an elephant shrew with a long, twitchy nose! (The pandas on the video screen are the Mommy Panda and the new panda cub, who was about 6 weeks old when we took the pictures. (You can read more about him, see the panda cam, and even vote for his name on the zoo web site.) The mommy and cub are being kept away from the public until the baby is older. The one eating bamboo in the color photos is the daddy.)

Sunflowers

Daddy and I did some photography experiments tonight. Using his tripod and something called a "macro setting", we took some more ultra closeup pictures of my sunflower. I took many of these photos myself. We also made something called a still life. In our still lifes, we used some of my pretend fruit, a real lemon, a real carrot, a wine glass, and my big plastic duck. We put these on our patio table. We even took a shot of our still life from underneath the table. I like our pictures. You can see them here.

Doing Laundry

While Mommy has a hurt toe, Daddy and I have been helping her out by doing the laundry. One of the highlights of laundry is sock matching, which I am an expert in. The other highlight is getting into the laundry basket with the dirty clothes. Here are some pictures that Daddy and Mommy think are exceptionally cute of my doing laundry.

In the Jungle

As you know, it's a great tradition to sing Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) before going to bed. As part of that tradition, I get to choose the animal in each verse that sleeps tonight. While selections vary in the first two verses---everything from dragons to zebras to otters---I'm very consistent in my selection for the last verse. For that verse, I choose the unlikeliests of bedfellows, the tiger and the polar bear, while they never meet in the wild, the often meet in my world.

A Really Useful Boy

Much like Thomas the Tank Engine, I aspire to be Really Useful too. This weekend I've been a really useful boy. Yesterday, I helped Daddy make an apple pie. I gathered the apples from our tree as Daddy tossed them down to me from his ladder. I measured out the mixture of sugar, cinnamon, flour, salt, and nutmeg to coat the apples with, I cut all the apples (using the apple cutting machine), and I put the pie in the oven to bake. Mommy said it was the best pie we've yet made together.

Today, I decided that the patio windows needed cleaning, so I took out my trusty squirt bottle, rag, and, best of all, my trusty squeegee! I love squeegeeing. Here are some pictures of me at work. I've also included some pictures of a sunflower and carrot I grew as well as some pictures taken at dinner. Of course, I played a key role in helping to cook.

Moonscapes

On Wednesday, Mommy went out with some of her other Mommy friends for the evening. This meant it was "guy night" here at home. After Daddy made dinner, we went for a walk. I noticed how nice the moon looked. I also noticed that the moon seemed to be following us. Everywhere we walked, there was the moon right over our shoulders. Daddy suggested we get out the camera and tripod and take a picture of the moon. I took some pictures and Daddy took some. Here are our "moonscapes."

When I Grow Up I Wanna Live in DC

I decided to open the front door by myself and go out there to watch for Daddy a few minutes ago. Mommy spoiled my plan and said that 3 is too young to open the front door and go out by myself. I told her that when I grow up, I'll be able to do that. I also told her, "You know, when I grow-up, I can go to Washington D.C. and Daddy will get me a job there, and I can go on THE METRO, you know! And you know, other people will keep me company on the metro..." (I remind Mom and Dad regularly that my airline of choice for my future trips to DC is JetBlue due to the individual TV screens on the back of the seats.)

It's Time to Match the Stars...

Lately, one of my favorite games is "Match Game". This involves turning over a bunch of pairs of Thomas the Tank Engine cards and then taking turns trying to find matches. When I play this game with Daddy, however, before the start of each episode there is an intro to the show.

Daddy: It's time to...
Aidan: Match the Stars!!!
Daddy: With Aidan Morgan, Piggy, Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, Richard Dawson, and Fannie Flagg...
Daddy: And your host...
Aidan: Gene Rayburn!
Daddy: Hi Stars!
Aidan: Hi Gene!

We then sing the Match Game theme song and we're ready to play. For a blast from the past, check out the theme music here.

Mining

Today I went to the Black Diamond mine. This was a coal and sand mine located in Antioch, CA during the 19th and first bit of the 20th century. I really liked seeing the railroad tracks leading into the mine. I also has a lot of fun climbing up and down a giant sandpile. Here are some pictures of my adventures. You will note several pictures of mountains. When Mommy asked me what the mountains reminded me of, I said they reminded me of the humps of camels. They are definitely "humpy", have the righ color scheme, and, with their tall, dry grasses, look sort of like the fur of a camel. At the end of the batch of pictures, you'll find a couple more engine shots from the Smithsonian, as well as a shot of a sunset walk I took with Daddy along Livorna Road. I've decided we live in a very pretty place in the shadow of "Mountain Diablo."

September playdates

Here are some photos from some recent playdates with friends at my house.

P.S. If you look back at my Sept. 1 blog, you can now see my drawing of a daisy and some grass.

First Week at Garden School

Today was my first day going to preschool without Mommy. I liked it. My preschool is Garden Montessori School, and my teachers are Troy and Carolyn (both are ladies). There is a tank of fish and two birdies (which Mommy tells me are finches).

Yesterday, Mommy and I visited my preschool for a while and found lots of interesting things to do. The first thing I chose was an activity with white plastic hard boiled eggs floating in purple water in the Practical Life area. I used tongs to pick them up out of the water, put them in a colander, and then put them in pretty egg cups with my tongs. Afterward, I used yellow playdough in a little bundt cake mold to make a cake and then slice it. Next, I used some neat purple "slime" stuff and made shapes with it and even cut it with scissors. Finally, I took a tray of colorful styrofoam nuggets and painted water on them. It turns out that they stick together when you do this! I made a flower shape. As we were leaving, I noticed that another boy had stung a necklace with Cheerios and was eating them off of it. I told Mommy that I wanted to do a necklace next time and repeat some of the other stuff I did. Troy told me that the next day Mommy would drop me off at school for a short time and that Troy would walk me into the school. I told her, "I prefer both {mommy AND me}." I also told her and Mommy that I wanted to play school at home to get used to the idea. (We did this, pretending to drive to school in my imaginary rainbow car.)

As Mommy was driving me to school this morning, I told her that I was "the Little Engine that Could," and went to school in that frame of mind. Teacher Troy walked me up the steps, I waved goodbye to Mommy and I disappeared inside in a flash. I was all smiles when Mommy picked me up a half hour later. My teacher told Mommy that I didn't understand why it was so short today since I had lots of things in mind to do. I told Mommy that I didn't get to do the necklace or the colorful styrofoam things, but I did do a tower. (Mommy guesses this was the "pink tower" from the Sensorial area.) I also mentioned a circle with a goodbye song and that there is a Jack in his class who isn't a big man! (unlike Uncle Jack)

This week is a phase in week, where I go every day for a short amount of time (Weds- 1/2 hour, Thurs-45 min, Fri-1 hr, Mon and Tues-1 1/2 hrs. Finally a week from tomorrow I go my full 2 1/2 hrs. I'll be going to school 3 days a week once the getting used to school week is done: Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

My Car

I've been thinking about what kind of car I'd like to have when I grow up. My current optimal specification is as follows: I'd like a rainbow colored car with white wheels. On the front it will have two windows, but on the sides of the car, it will have lots of small airplane type windows. My car will also have wings on the side so it looks like an airplane and the wheels will fold up inside. The steering wheel will also be a rainbow.

Pictures from DC

I've decided that, as there have been more pictures taken of me than days I've been alive, it's time to rebel. My usal strategy is to make a series of faces---many of which feature my tongue prominently exposed---whenever someone wants to take a picture of me. But Daddy won't be easily deterred from picture taking. Here is an album with a bunch of shots Daddy took while we were in the Smithsonian in DC. You will notice that I'm mostly absent from these shots. Despite this, somehow Daddy managed to find some fairly interesting things to shoot. Here's the link

Figure and ground

I've been experimenting with the idea of figure and ground in some of my more recent artwork. I wanted to draw a picture of a bunch of daisies to send to my friend Sophie. Since daisies have white petals, white paper won't work to give the right effect. Instead, I asked for some black construction paper and then colored it white and yellow to indicate the color of the daisies. This drawing worked out so well, I made a couple of others to give to other friends.