Adam’s Dad

This is the first picture ever taken of Adam and his Daddy.  I will never forget the look on Dave’s face when we heard our baby cry for the first time.  I have never seen him so happy or so proud.

Dave is an amazing daddy.  He loves spending time with his little buddy.  Each day he records Adam’s favorite dinosaur cartoon so that he can watch it with him when he gets home from work.  They sit on the couch together and learn all about theropods and pteranodons (la la loooo).  He never turns down a nap with the little dude and loves showing him new things and watching him learn.  Today he was trying to teach Adam how to give him a high five.  I think he’s just about got it figured out.

This morning Adam and I hung out downstairs while Dave slept in.  Adam had dozed off while I was holding him and woke up when Dave joined us in the living room.  The little traitor practically jumped out of my arms to get to his daddy.  I think I might be in danger of losing my mama’s boy.

His favorite thing to do right now is to sit at the top of our stairs (with me next to him) and play catch with Dave.  Dave will toss one of Adam’s soft baseballs up the stairs and the little guy will throw it back to him.  It won’t be long until they are in the backyard with gloves and a real baseball.

Dave really is a fantastic father.  I love watching the two of them together.  It makes my heart so happy.

Happy 1st Father’s Day Fisher.

Thank you for being so good to our baby and loving us both so much.

Killed him a bear when he was only 10 months

Our last day in Philly we went to the zoo (thank you again to Grandma Cathy & Grandpa).  Did you know the Philadelphia Zoo is known as America’s First Zoo?  It’s been around since 1859 and back then it was known as the Zoological Society of Philadelphia.  There, now you’ve learned something new today.

Here we are just inside the entrance of the zoo.

One of the first animals we visited were the gorillas.  We were able to get close to the glass and Adam loved it.  I had to move back a couple of steps because he was so excited he was flapping his arms and trying to hit the glass.  I really did not want to be responsible for an angry gorilla.  If you look closely you can see our little monkey’s reflection in the glass.

We did end up finding a gorilla that Adam could beat up as much as he wanted.

By far though, this was the cutest gorilla in the zoo.

The parts of that gorilla that were not made of Adam were made of legos.  The zoo was featuring a really cool exhibit called “Creatures of Habitat: A Gazillion-Piece Animal Adventure”.  It took about 95,000 legos to build this Polar Bear.

We really liked the penguins (surprise).

And these turtles were fun too.

It really was amazing to see all these animals made out of legos.  And of course the real animals were great too.  I think the little dude’s favorite were the giraffes.  He really did not know what to think of them.  He kept looking at me and then back at the giraffes, almost as if to say, “Are these things for real Mama?”.

It was a really nice visit, despite Adam’s run in with a family of black bears.

We weren’t too worried about his safety.  Captain Adorable can handle himself.

Ha ha bear, got yer nose!

Road Rage

Apparently Adam was not as thrilled with our trip to Sesame Place as we were, not sure what Elmo did to tick him off.

I am not looking forward to a certain someone getting his learner’s permit in 15 years.

Sunny Days

The main purpose of our trip to Philadelphia was to visit Sesame Place.  Adam loves Elmo.  He stops whatever he’s doing to watch each time Elmo’s on Sesame Street (which is way more often than my childhood favorites – I can’t remember the last time I saw and episode with The Count or Grover).

We signed up to have breakfast in the park with some of the characters.  This allowed us to get in to the park half an hour before it opened and gave us a reason to get there early to try to beat the crowds.  As soon as we walked through the gates we saw Oscar.

The breakfast was okay.  Adam enjoyed the scrambled eggs and looking at all of the people.  He was a little leery about the characters, but in general was okay as long as we were holding him.  He learned long ago it’s easier just to submit to our photo-torture.

After breakfast we walked around the park a little.  We took some pictures (surprise) and stopped in the gift shop to pick up a magnet to commemorate our trip (which was last seen being chewed on by Adam in the hotel, I think he ate it, okay maybe not really, but it’s lost).

Then we made our way over to see “Elmo’s World”.  I’d read in some online reviews that it was the most popular show and so we should get there early to make sure we got seats.  We got there in plenty of time and were actually the second family in line.  This is Adam’s favorite part of Sesame Street, so he was pretty attentive during the show.  I think he was a little confused as to why there were so many people watching with us and why Elmo was so big.

After Elmo’s World it was time to get in line for Elmo’s Live Rock Concert.  That pretty much sums up our day: waiting in line, searching for shade, and taking pictures.  Considering the little dude is only 10 months old it was exactly what we’d planned.

My only goals for the day were to get pictures with as many characters as possible and for Adam not to get sunburned.  I think we were successful on both counts.

After the parade at two o’clock we were all ready to leave.  It was hot and crowded and we all really needed naps.  I can definitely see us going back again next summer though – preferably not on a holiday weekend.

May I have a bit of earth?

After the aquarium we headed next door to the Camden Children’s Garden.  It had a lot of great interactive, hands-on activities for kids (not so much for Adam, though he does try to get his hands on anything he can).   We still had a good time and it was nice to walk around and check things out.

We were welcomed into the garden by this guy.

You know who he is right?  Give it a little thought, ponder it weak and weary if needed.

Anyone, anyone?

It’s Edgar Allan Poe-tato Head of course.

The next stop on our Storybook Garden tour was Alice in Wonderland.  The little dude was a bit cranky here, having an “off with their heads” moment if you will.

He cheered up a little when we went to the Jack and the Beanstalk Garden.  We tried having him sit alone in the chair here as well, however…

There were tons of leaves in the seat,

Which Adam believed he needed to eat,

Perhaps he thought the foliage sweet?

Or sustenance to combat the heat?

But his parents saw (he’s less than discreet)

And told him leaves were not a treat.

It’s probably a good thing I picked a math/science intensive major.

I’ll just stick to pictures and brief commentary from now on.

They also had areas dedicated to The Three Little Pigs, The Frog Prince, and The Secret Garden (which is one of my all-time favorite books).

They had other themes as well.  The Dinosaur Garden was probably my favorite – most likely because we were able to take these pictures of Adam.

Be careful, that Adamosaurus is a carnivore for sure.  He eats everything we give him and tries to eat anything he can find, to include my earrings, a paperclip, cardboard…

On second thought, I’m pretty sure Adamosaurus is a goativore.

Looks a little fishy to me

The first place we visited on our trip to Philadelphia last weekend was the aquarium.  I am pretty sure that the little dude could have sat right here for hours and just watched the fish.

He was so excited when the fish passed by him and didn’t understand why he couldn’t touch them.

I think we took more pictures of Adam looking at the fish, than of the actual fish.  There was one point where Dave and I were both taking pictures of Adam (we each had a camera).  The poor kid is constantly followed by the paparazzi (and the mamarazzi too).

He attracted a lot of attention from other aquarium visitors too.  People in Philadelphia know a cute baby when they see one.

I am really going to miss the day when he gets too old for me to put him in ridiculous poses and take pictures of him.  I’m referring to Adam here, not Dave.  I’m pretty sure Dave will never be too old for that.

He was not at all interested in meeting Gill.  First of all, it was getting close to nap time, and secondly, Gill’s a shark.  The next picture might help explain Adam’s aversion to sharks.

Sharks have a lot of teeth.  As of June 1st, Adam has three teeth.

I was going to help Adam build a fire inside the shark (a la Pinocchio) to get out.  That ended up not being necessary though, what with us being able to just reach in and grab him.  Plus, babies really shouldn’t play with matches.  I read that someplace.

I would have really liked a nicer picture here at Penguin Island.  But it was hot and the poor little guy was tired – plus he’d been inside a shark and terrorized by jellyfish (that was the only exhibit he did not like, and by “not like” I mean cried and screamed at).

I thought they were pretty neat looking.

Anyway, so that in a nutshell was our trip to the aquarium.  Here’s one last picture, just to prove I was actually there too.