Here we go

So, despite the ridiculous heat this afternoon, I found myself rummaging through our recycling cart (which I love, by the way) for the elusive list of words. I was hoping that nobody attending the open house next door would think the potential future neighbor was some kind of recycling-cart-diving weirdo. Alas, the search was futile, but later this afternoon, I sat down with pen and paper and racked my brain to come up with the words below. This time, I reused a piece of junk mail (am I thrifty or what?). To avoid losing the words again, I am ensuring that they live on, at least until Blogger crashes, by posting them here. If it seems a bit silly that I'm putting so much effort into this, it's because this blog is as much a record as a way of communicating with friends and family. I don't keep a journal, and I'm waaaaay behind on baby books, so this is it.

Here are Noel's newest words: cracker, bubble, eye, balloon, paper, hat, shoes, teeth, fish, cheese, cup, down, phone, Cheerios, ball, my (he's even said "my book"), car, truck ("guck," just like Dom used to say), hi, sit, strawberry. He also likes to say "poe," which may sometimes mean pillow. Also, he refers to his boy bits as "peese" (as in "peace") or "beese."

Even more pictures are up on Picasa. Yesterday was Mike's birthday, and we went to the zoo to celebrate. It was the third stop in our Summer 2008 Tour de St. Louis. On Friday, May 30, we went to the Boathouse in Forest Park to eat lunch and ride the paddleboats. My months of spin class came in handy there. It was a lovely day, a perfect beginning to our jaunt through the city, but I FORGOT THE CAMERA! All the mental reminders to bring the camera were for naught. I came home and stole some other people's Boathouse pictures from Flickr, but that's only small consolation. What I really wanted, obviously, were pictures of us. Lesson learned. The second stop on our tour was the Missouri Botanical Garden, which is holding its Niki de Saint Phalle exhibit. I took the boys on Wednesday morning, and we had a good time. By some miracle, I remembered the camera that day.

As for the zoo, it was fun and not too hot first thing in the morning. Noel had never been before, so he needed to go. Dom's favorite part was the train, specifically the train tracks. He didn't even go in the fountain in the Children's Zoo because he just wanted to go to the tracks. The only other thing he cared for was a bench with bugs in the seat. I'm not sure what Noel liked best. Maybe it was the slide in the Children's Zoo. He did well on the train, not laughing but not crying, either.