The tigers weren't out, but the caracals were. I always knew "caracals" to be called lynxes, but I guess there's a different word for them if they come from Turkey. These caracals were in rare form. The male was circling around the enclosure and every time he came anywhere near the female, she hissed at him. I'm assuming there were some mating or territorial issues at work. But Evie was fascinated. She said, "Mama! Caracals are snaking at each other!" We continued to watch them for a while, then broke free and went to see the monkeys.
Evie and I saw the keeper putting out the gorillas' breakfast so we stayed to watch the gorillas enter their enclosure. We talked about what kinds of foods they were eating (apples, carrots, and "salad" as Evie called the lettuce). Then someone nearby had a balloon that popped and the gorillas went a little ape. The silverback started prowling while the others ran to the back of the enclosure. Evie was fascinated about this whole event and kept talking about it for days.
I loved when when we to see the rhino and an airplane went by overhead. Evie said, "Rhino! It's an airplane! You better run away!" The giraffes were also a big hit this time, and one of them took a huge interest in Evie, but I think Evie got a little scared.
After going to the zoo, she was pretty worn out. She sat in her chair and closed her eyes and pretended to be sleeping. I said, "Are you playing possum?" She said, "I petty awesome" which I think is an adorable twisting of the words.
Another big to do this week is Evie's first big haircut. She's had her bangs trimmed and the back of her hair trimmed just a little, but she got several inches cut off. It looks so much better and uniform, not so scraggly.
Before the haircut
Sitting in Miss Jo's chair
Post cut lollipop
Evie entertained me this week by reading several books to me. I love that she starts each book out with "One uponce a time". She also likes playing school and will declare, "I the teacher!" and then stand with her hands on her hips and say, "What's going on in here?"
Another funny from this week is when she was petting Edgar who started to drool on her. She said, "Edgar spilled me!" And then a few minutes later, "It's okay, ChuuChu lick it off." Yuck. Granna also reminded me that something to capture about Evie's language right now is her typical follow up question to any label: What's x doing? If you say, "Evie, do you see the giraffe?", she'll say, "Uh huh. What's giraffe doing?" This is not limited to active nouns. She'll ask "What's orange doing, what's door doing, what's barking doing". For now, we like this question better than "Why?" which Evie hasn't started yet.
I have to share the most amazing thing that has simply put me in awe of Evie's memory. Evie stayed with Granna and Grannadaddy some this week while Seth and I finished exams. It's finally been nice enough to play outside, and Granna's backyard is all spruced up so Granna took Evie out in the back to play one day this week. Evie asked Granna for bubbles. Granna said she didn't have any out there, but she'd get some. Evie went over to a plastic storage bench and said, "Bubbles in there!" Granna opened the bench and sure enough, there under some pillows, was a bottle of bubble solution. Granna confirmed with Grannadaddy that Evie had not played with those bubbles recently. In fact, we think it may have been as late as last Easter, but certainly no more recently than her birthday 11 months ago, that she last played with those bubbles. What a memory my little girl has!
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