hullabaloo at the zoo

yesterday we went to the zoo. it was an hour to get there, and almost 2 to get back, so i wont be going there tooo often.. but while we were there an incredible thing happened.

we went inside the monkey house. and there was a huge gorilla sitting on the ledge of the window flirting with the children, almost posing with a smile on (her?) face. an opportunity we couldnt resist. since lucas is a shy boy, he couldnt just walk up to the glass and say howdya'do to this enormous gorilla, i had to very gently go sit next to her (on our side of the glass) and invite lucas to sit in my lap. so he did, and our friend remy came up to join the experience.. and everything was fine. i periodically made eye contact with the gorilla, smiling and making sure she was okay with this.. and she was. i guess she really likes the children. she even let my girlfriend kiki take our picture together.

but as soon as another woman came and offered to take our picture together, kiki came and tried to sit down too.. and WHAM!! the gorilla slammed her fist on the window by kiki, and with a huge gesture of displeasure turned and walked away mad.(apparently kiki didnt ask permission or maybe she moved too fast, who will ever know?) we were all quite shaken, so we went around to the next window. it was another view of the same gorilla exhibit. and we stood there marveling at them. one was basking in the sun taking a nap, a baby was toodling around having fun, and a papa was sitting sentry.















i was taking pictures of the napper (presumably mama) when kiki pointed to the papa and commented how she loved his face, so i turned to take a picture of him and he came charging, beating his chest! he didnt come to the window, but we jumped back just the same. and two minutes after he took his new position, the baby and mama came and sat down with her back to our window. we were just about to walk off when the baby climbed onto her mama's back and stretched up high to lean against our window, playing! i really felt like we were witness to something spectacular, i was so impressed. usually exhibits the zoo are so tame compared to that.

happenings

this weekend we went to our neighbor's 50th birthday party. it was a big catered affair, and we had a great time.

it rained quite a bit this weekend, so it seemed lucas was constantly in need of fresh clothes. he really enjoyed splashing around (water splasher!!) in one particularly large puddle in our driveway.. we figured the wash/dry of those shoes was inevitable anyway, so we let him really get wet. it was pretty nice, standing in the rain, watching my son have a ball.

tomorrow we will go to the cambridge city trucks show.. designed for the 2-6 crowd to see some city utility trucks up close & personal.. guder guder guder!!!

gonna go to the zoo sometime this week, too. and then on saturday we will invite every person we know here to mine & lucas' potluck-style birthday party. whoo!

simultaneous milestones

this week ruby discovered her hands. its been coming for a while, but now she can intentionally grab things! and so it begins... she also started laughing and thinks she wants to roll over soon.

and lucas started being bilingual. up to this point he has one word (whichever word of the two languages is easier for him to say) and the occasional two-word sentence (with mix-n-match-languages).. but now he says yes.. "yeah" to me and "ouai" to philippe.. and also says he rides a "bike" with me but calls it a "welo" with philippe.

this is really incredible to watch, y'all.. it's like springtime in my house and we're watching two buds start to slowly open up into flowers.

ps. new videos up

having had fun

we had a marvelous time with claire, and i got to do some tourism in boston that i have been meaning to do since we arrived (namely the freedom trail) you know, the balcony where the declaration of independence was read from, paul revere;s house & the church where they hung the " one if by land two if by sea" lanterns, and a bunch of other stuff too. we were stopped on boston common by a group of greeks that wanted to take a picture of lucas.. i guess because he's blonde (that'as happened before to him), and once they found out he was born in athens - three other cameras came out, amid hollers of "einai ellenos!", and "na sou zisei" for ruby. it was fun to brush off myu modest greek. i felt pretty smart i have to admit, despite having only learned a few phrases in the two years we were there// haha.

ive been hanging out with some really nice girls & their kids lately. its always so easy and free and interesting to hang out with them, and the kids seem to enjoy each other too.. feels nice to have some local girlfriends finally, even if two of them are moving away soon.. "better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all" you know...

ps. april photos are up on the "current pix" now.
pps. joyeux anniversaire a ma belle-soeur au jourd'hui!!! j'espere que tu as un an tres agreeable!