Life these days

Last week, we went to an animal park where you can see many types of interesting animals, feed most of them, and even pet some of them.  We saw a baby kangaroo get into his mom's pouch.  We saw lions laying on their backs, basking in the sun.  We saw a beautiful peacock with his tail completely fanned out.  Everly was excited to feed the animals the food pellets and carrots, and she giggled when the goat took the carrot from her hand.  BUT, there was one carrot that she was not willing to part with.  She held it far from the animals as we walked around the park, held it while she ate lunch, held it on the entire ride home. 

Cortlan, on the way to the animal park, was very excited at the prospect of feeding the animals and even said, "Mommy!  You can take lots and lots and lots of pictures of me!"  But, when faced with the reality of mouths larger than his hands licking food from his palm, he wasn't so keen on the idea.   He mostly watched and eventually did end up feeding them towards the end of the visit.  But he spent most of the trip sanitizing his hands.

In other news...

• Everly keeps telling me that she has to go potty.  Then, I put her on the potty and she wants off.  Maybe she is telling me she just went potty, but it would be pretty awesome if she is in the process of potty training herself.  I am not pushing the issue...she is, after all, not even sixteen months old.  But I am certainly not discouraging it, and am very willing to put her on the potty whenever she wants.
• Speaking of potty...Everly peed on the floor when I was changing her diaper.  Nice.
• The status of swimming:  Everly loves it and will practically jump in the water herself.  Cortlan could care less about it and is perfectly happy playing on the deck.  But they both loved when we put the baby pool at the bottom of their slide in the back yard.
• Cortlan got to stay up late to watch the neighbors' fireworks last night.  What a treat for him, and what a treat for me.  He knew it was special and was thankful, and was so darn cute as he watched them in awe.  If only the late night would have translated into sleeping in...