Master Yoda

Day Off

Before anyone comments on the ridiculous hour at which I'm posting, let me say that Erik is on call tonight, and staying up like a college freshman is preferable to lying in bed by myself, imagining that I hear baby-snatchers or rodents. I've always had an overactive imagination in the dark - I think it stemmed from my youth when I had to take the recycling out to the curb late at night, because of course I hadn't remembered to do it when it was light outside. I would brace myself, stagger out with the bin half my size, frantically looking for kidnappers and murderers on our quiet suburban street, and then race back for another week of safety. I read a lot as a kid... Anyway, while I lay here visualizing how I would vanquish intruders, I thought I would post of our trip to the zoo. Erik had a rare day off, and I've been wanting to check out Hogle Zoo for a while, so we went. Now, I had very low expectations, having grown up with the two monumental zoos of Chicago. But overall, I was pleasantly surprised, and think it's just the right size for children.

I was excited to see the baby elephant - we got a bang out of watching her splash in mud puddles. Apparently children of all species are the same. Morgan didn't seem to notice them, probably because they move too slowly.

She perked up when we found the giraffes, though. They're kind of hard to miss. She was too busy staring to look at the camera. Notice in all the pictures of Morgan that you will also see Piglet, her stuffed animal. He goes wherever she goes. I get the feeling that his life span will not be a long one, especially since she thinks it's funny to chuck him out of car seats and moving strollers.

"Dad, I think I want that. I look great in red."

"Victory. But now I want it off."

We really enjoyed the monkeys. Probably our favorite part was watching the enormous male orangutan corner the female and then steal her food out of her mouth. While in the monkey exhibit, I discovered that blue-bummed baboons (like on Lion King) make Erik nervous. Turns out that he is not an animal lover - sharks, snakes, the pointy-nosed fish in the Caribbean, huge beetles, and now baboons...

Overall, a great day. Honestly, a rare day spent together with no other obligations would make anything fun. I annoyed Erik by avidly reading every sign and regurgitating unwanted information, Morgan was her usual charming and patient self, and Erik manfully put frugality before fatherly indulgence by NOT buying Morgan a stuffed giraffe.

It's that time of year...

...when large families get together for a couple of days to reacquaint, gossip, and sometimes fight. My mom's family had one such reunion this last weekend, although I think we got away without any fighting. That's amazing with close to 100 people (and yes, they are all closely related - my mom has 13 brothers and sisters). That means a host of little cousins that I can't even remember names for, and and one cousin that was born after Morgan.

With that many people, Morgan got passed around a lot. It was fantastic. She had her first licorice (and screamed bloody murder when I took it away - I was concerned about that much sugar flowing through her little body).

And of course, once the ice cream was passed around, she had to participate. It's uncanny how she knows what ice cream looks like in all its different forms - she was instantly riveted by the Casco.

There were some really clever games that we played up in Park City, like this one. We called it the Bunny Wiggle, the Bum Dance, etc. The object was to shake the ping pong balls out of your box before your opponent. I got some hilarious video - who knew my relatives could shake it like that? - but it might not be G rated, as well as potentially embarrassing to people I have to see the rest of my life.

This game involved pantyhose with a tennis ball at the bottom. You had to put it on your head and then, without hands, swing the tennis ball at water bottles on the ground and knock them over. A strange form of bowling.

Dad and Jon

Even my grandma got into it.

But of course the best part was just spending time with my family, who I don't get to see very often. Morgan thought all the attention was great.

Grandma would even get down on the floor and crawl with her. I've been told that I can't post any of those pictures.

And Morgan got to meet her cousin Will for the first time. For the most part she wrote him off as too young and toyless to be fun, but they had a few little moments.

See you again in two years. Until then, we can all keep in touch the usual way - through the Spackman women's gossip chain. Faster than anything known to man.

You wouldn't know it, but Morgan popped out her first tooth during the reunion. What a champ.

Disclaimer: regardless of what this looks like, Aunt Lindsay is not flicking her in the ear.

Come Sail Away

Morgan's first time on a boat.

"Baby Spice"

Taking a dip.