Somebaby likes watermelon, and judging by the sticky hands and watermelon juice all over his shirt, he likes it a lot.

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!

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.

Somebody stole my baby.  I don’t know who it was, but I’m not pleased.

They left me this cute little boy in his place, and he’s nice and all, but I want my baby.  This kid looks way too grown up for my taste.

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.

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.

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.

Today we visited Adventure Aquarium and the Camden Children’s Garden.  The little dude loved the fish.  I think he would have sat and watched (and tried to grab them through the glass) all day.  We were planning on visiting the Battleship New Jersey this afternoon too, but sort of ran out of steam.   We did walk down and admire it from the shore, but since battleships aren’t really stroller friendly and Adam was fast asleep in his, we decided to pass on touring it.

Dave reclined the stroller and he immediately turned over on to his belly and went right to sleep.  It’s exhausting being so cute all the time.

This past Saturday Dave played in a golf tournament in Pennsylvania.  Adam and I went up with him and passed our time going out to breakfast, shopping, and napping.  It was a good day.  Sunday we visited the Boyd’s Bear Factory.  Once we got there (there was a small problem with the GPS not realizing there was a bridge out), we had a great time.

Dave and Adam found the biggest stuffed penguin I’ve ever seen (and no, the penguin did not come home with us – Adam did get a 25 inch stuffed pig though because it was on super clearance and his Daddy couldn’t resist…he may have also gotten a duck that rattles, a maraca, and a squishy baseball….he’s very spoiled loved).

They had the cutest rocking bear there.  So of course we had to let Adam give it a try.

He wasn’t sure what to do at first.  But when I told him to “rock, rock” (he does know what that means thanks to our rocking chair), he figured it out pretty quickly.

Here he’s deep in thought – note the tongue sticking out while he concentrates on getting the bear to rock.  It wasn’t easy, especially since his little legs are about 6 inches too short.

He’s definitely got the hang of it now!  We had to pull him off of the rocking bear after he got a little too comfortable and tried to ride it rodeo style with one hand in the air.

Here’s Adam in a basket of giraffes.  We had to end this game pretty quickly – he kept trying to eat all of the tags.  Baby slobber makes bar codes difficult to scan.

As we were leaving we came across this huge teddy bear.  He was all photo’d out though and wouldn’t pose with the bear for us.  It was just luck we were able to get this picture.  As soon as we’d walk away he was on the move.  Taking ridiculous adorable pictures of the little dude was a lot easier before he learned how to crawl.

Here are some of the pictures from yesterday’s trip to the playground.  This was actually the second trip that day for Adam and me.  At first he wasn’t too sure of being in the swing.

It didn’t take long for him to decide it was fun.

We ended up turning him around to see if that would help with the pictures.  The sun was not cooperating.

This next picture cracks me up.  Lately whenever Adam hears anyone say “yay” he claps his hands.  So that’s what he was trying to do here.

We’ve already made one trip back to the playground today – it’s nice having it so close.  We went over right before lunch and there were a ton of people there.  He would have sat and watched the older kids all day if I’d let him.  He was very interested in how the boy next to him was able to swing so high without his mommy pushing him.