encounters with watermelon and a giraffe.

yesterday aaron, sherry, travis, rocket, and i ALL piled in the car and drove up to meet the mckillop clan for a day at silver springs. for those of you who don't know, silver springs is an old-timey florida roadside attraction famous for its glass bottom boats (read: boats that make tiffany nauseous). they also have various exotic animals in cages and a couple of cheesy rides (actually, there may have only been one cheesy ride... anyway, we didn't do the rides). basically, it's a bizarre land of archaic-seeming attractions populated by disgruntled employees.

they won't let you bring your lunch in the park, so we went out to the picnic table and had ours. aunt amanda brought watermelon. this pleased rocket greatly.








travis and rocket both fell in love with mr. giraffe. the feeling seemed to be mutual due to their supplying him with cookies and pellets.


aunt amanda and cousin jade feeding mr. giraffe.


pop pop and cousin aidan feeding mr. giraffe. aidan disregarded the "only feed the giraffe food sold by the attendant" sign and slipped him a crunchy magnolia leaf :)


travis got REALLY excited when mr. giraffe let him pet his nose.


and then he went back for more cookies while rocket stared longingly at mr. giraffe canoodling with other children.


my boys and their new pet.


"noooo daddy! i don't WANT to leave!! i loooove you, mr. giraffe!!!"

rocket's first ocean dip.

today was the first of many trips into the beautiful ocean. well, it's the gulf, but you know what i mean. and yes, he's covered from head to toe in spf50.

he's got dimples in all the right places.


"look at the camera"


bathing suits are for suckahs.


first time toes touch sand!


both feet.


surfin' it up.


trying to get the waves.


the wave got him!


but rocket strikes back!


and daddy laughed :)


when you're paranoid about sunburn you make daddy give you his shirt so you can put it on the baby even though it's the only one he's got. and then 5 minutes later you decide you need to leave because the baby has had enough sun.


he's just the cutest thing ever. i wish i'd taken pictures of him out in the water. he was...amazing.

the truth.

someone designed this tshirt for my son, obviously. but instead of 12 months the tag should say 5 months.




:)

what every florida baby needs.

at first he wasn't too sure.


wait, dad has some too?


i LOVE these!


rocket goes by the alias "cool breeze" when he's sportin' these bad boys.

highly recommended.

my grandmother turned this program on while i was getting rocket to sleep, so i only saw the last half or so. another time i'll start it from the beginning. you should too. it made me smile AND tear up. that's how you know it's good! pbs is quickly becoming a favorite post-baby bedtime pastime.
click here to go to pbs' site and watch 'why we love cats and dogs'

sea arms.

ramped up and ready to go. ghostly hue courtesy of spf50.

this saturday morning.

helped mom mom clean out her closet. got this awesome new toy. decided to try to eat it.


when mom tried to take it i rolled over on it so she couldn't see me chewing it. it didn't work.

happy birthday to me.

mom's professional-grade cake decorating.


intense focus on paper ripping.


his favorite wrapper.


"i said give it to meeeeeee!"


"athankyou"


blowing out the candles.


trying to grab the candles.


favorite.


sometimes i try to suck his brains out through his soft spot.


dad time.


oh, 24. how very close you are to 25...

little changes.

this is what unwrapping presents looks like when you have a 5 month old.


more birthday pictures to come tomorrow as i....am not going to sort through them tonight :)

godsuki attacks!

godsuki being, of course, godzilla's baby. (see below)


i guess this makes me godzilla...


:)

auntie c calls it the carwash.

spotted on the glass.

someone's been held too close to the aquarium :)

thirsty.

polydipsia - excessive thirst. well, at least he gets ONE thing from me.

assembly.

scattered things from the last week or so...
fell asleep in car while still clutching mr. lion's foot.


fishy lala land.


was trying to video him in fishy lala land. didn't work out that way.


snarfing piggy wrist rattle.


dancing for piggy wrist rattle.


napping today.

whispers.

this is what our quiet time sounds like.

at the sponge docks.

don't ask me why we went. i don't really know. maybe because the last time i was there was in 6th grade and i remember it being awesome. it...is NOT awesome. but it was fun :)

they had a sign..."pay before you play"... we did not.


this is, of course, what you DO at tables.


napping with mr. elephant. tarpon springs is tiring!

originals.

i was sorting through pictures and found these. they are the first pictures taken with travis' cell phone camera.

the actual first picture! this was right right RIGHT after he came out!


scrub-a-dub-dub...


greetings earthlings.


you can see his head is deformed from me trying to push him out for 2.5 hours.


sleeping on daddy.


hard to believe he's so much bigger now.