Fall is here!

Nora and I took off for the zoo this morning. She got to go with Daddy Saturday while I studied, and I realized this morning early on that I have a midterm Friday, paper due Sunday, another paper due Wednesday, and another midterm the next weekend, so there was one little tiny window of opportunity for us to go to the zoo, and today was the day!

So off we went.

Nora LOVES the zoo and knows her way around. Often, she'll start mimicking the noises of the animals she anticipates seeing next.

But we have a brand new LION exhibit, called "Predator Ridge", and it includes lions, cheetahs, African wild dogs, and a number of other neat animals.

This lizard is new -- and I say if you have a red head, blue body and green tail (sorry I didn't get the whole thing in the shot) -- AND you crawl up to the glass to check out the girl in the window -- you're a pretty cool lizard.

Nora thought he was pretty neat too and went back twice!

The leaves were in the middle of their "turning" phase. I love them, and I love that feeling of a crisp Fall day where you can walk around and just take in all the colors in front of you. It makes "going into the tunnel" of winter that much more tolerable.

Nora spent a lot of time investigating them, stuffing them into various places (like a hollow fencepost) and investigating some more...We spent a good 15-20 minutes just investigating the leaves and playing in one area.

As much as there are parents saying "Don't you want to see _____?" I figured today I would not be the parent rushing my kid along. Today she could stuff as many leaves as she wanted into the post by the Disappearing Pigs of Malaysia, and I would just sit and wait for her to be done.
As we left "Africa", we headed up through the Monkey Falls, and there's a number of benches with memorials to the donors' loved ones.

Nora a month ago wouldn't have noticed them at all.

Nora today, says "A! B! D! E! O! O! D!" as she calls out the letters she sees in front of her.

She's only really accurate about the letter O, but she gets it right some other times, and I just praise the heck out of her for trying.


Our last fun of the day after our picnic lunch was to go on a little ride on the train. It's a loop ride instead of all the way to Wash Park, which turned out perfectly.

Nora tooted and tooted along "CHOO CHOO!" she said "CHOOO CHOOOOOO!"

She lit up and didn't stop til 10 minutes after the train ride was over.

And then we came home.