Blake is incredible

Blake will be 21 months next week!?!? It's crazy that 2 years is fast approaching. I took him to the zoo last week. I wasn't sure how he'd like it. Dalisa had taken him a few months ago, and he wasn't too into it. But this time, he was all about it! He was mostly into the squirrels and birds eating zoo snacks that had fallen by the wayside, even more so than the exotic animals behind the various fences. But the pure joy in his face melted my heart!

He loves to come grab my hand and show me things. The other day, he was playing with his basketball hoop, and he came and grabbed my hand while I was sitting on the couch (3 feet away from the basketball hoop), and led me over to where he was dunking the ball, just so I could get a better view of his accomplishment :)

But I digress, back to the zoo (I jump at any chance I get to speak of his athletic prowess :) ... Blake loves Ducks. He and Dalisa sometimes go to feed the ducks by her house...we didn't have bread, but I had several ritz crackers. I gave Blake one to eat, and when he saw some other kids feeding the ducks, he threw in the remainder of his cracker, which brought more ducks over.

I gave him another cracker, which he took a bite of, and then proceeded again to throw the remainder in the water. He was very happy to share his crackers with the ducks.

After the Zoo, we decided to go up to Desert Ridge (Another JW Marriott Resort in the Valley). They have a sweet lazy river, and also a Nickelodeon kids program. Spongebob and Dora make appearances in the lobby each afternoon. We had an in, since my friend's girlfriend works in the Nick Kids program. So we went and swam for a little while (Blake looks total "surfer chic" but isn't really into the swimming thing yet. We're working on it though).

We went around the lazy river once, stopping for a brief time to watch the Nick Crew put pie in some guests' faces. I took Blake out of the tube, and tried to get him to swim a little bit. He wasn't having any of it. So I set him on the step of the pool, water going up to his waist. He took a few steps forward, stepped off the step and dunked himself in the water. He did not like this experience at all. I took him back around to our chairs, and after a few minutes of recovery asked if he wanted to go in again.

He didn't answer, but the look on his face gave a sort of "do i look like I want to go in the water?? If I want to get wet again, I'll get in myself, but until then, I'm good right here..."

We went inside to see Spongebob and Dora...I had hyped it up all day by telling Blake he was going to see Spongebob, etc.... he was excited!...until he actually saw Spongebob that is...then he got really scared.

That was as close as he would get, and he wouldn't let me leave his side at all. Hopefully I didn't traumatize him for life...I may never get him to watch Nick Kids, or wash the dishes for that matter.

You could see his little mind at work though. He kept a safe distance away, but always had an eye on the characters... I'd love to know what he's thinking in this photo. It could be something like "Get those gigantic cartoon characters away from me!" or it could be "did I turn off the iron?" both are valid reasons to worry I guess :)