'da zoo

Last week we took off to enjoy one of the last sunny, warm days Chicago has to offer. We (Phil, Nadia, Quinn, my sister-in-law Michelle, Micah Joy and yours truly) spent the morning at the Lincoln Park Zoo!

Cousins! Notice how "thrilled" Micah is with the physical display of affection. :)

The lion exhibit was much like any other - except that the lady lion was pawing at the plate glass in her sleep. We noticed that her paws were exceptionally large - about the size of baby Q's head.

 I had no idea that beavers were so huge! I think he's bigger than either of those 40 pound little girls.

 "Baby Bison" as we've recently nicknamed him (due to his amazing hulk - he's 26 inches tall and well over 17 pounds. A far cry from his 7 lbs 6oz and 20 inches a mere 12 weeks ago... he's bursting out of his 3-6 months clothes and wears size 3 diapers. We'd be concerned, but he's also gearing up to be a very active little boy. He can do the "baby push up", eagerly bears weight on his legs, rolls over in every direction and has started bouncing. He also smiles, coos and laughs ((like Elmer Fudd)). Holding his head up is old news...) catches lots of z's at the zoo.

"Wowie zowie! A really real polar bear, mom!"

"Here rhino, rhino, rhino! Oh, mommy, she's so CUTE!"

Yay for carousels.

I meant to get a quick photo of the sky line while we passed, but instead snagged this funny photo of Michelle (also the only one of the day???) in our rear-view mirror.

Warm, sunny day at the Chicago free zoo makes babies tired.

So tired, in fact, that they forget all about the gum in their mouths.