Aquarium

Next stop in the Tulsa itinerary was the aquarium. None of us had been before, and it was surprisingly wonderful.

A David favorite, the long-horn cowfish.

Lots of cool, interactive exhibits - here, touching rays. Also an enormous - and amazing - walk-through shark aquarium. 

But despite these marine wonders, Gwendolyn's favorite was playing with the large number of stuffed unicorns on display at the aquarium gift shop. Stuffed unicorns in an aquarium gift shop? No, don't ask. At least, there is a lone sea horse in the middle of Gwendolyn's unicorn array.

Zoo

The day after opening presents, we went to the Tulsa Zoo. Unlike our tiny zoo in Panama where the only animals are ones that can be found locally, the Tulsa zoo has a bit of everything. We asked Gwendolyn what she most wanted to see, expecting her to say giraffes or lions or tigers or bears. She thought about this for some time and then said peccaries and toucans - common Panama rainforest animals. You can take the kid out of Panama, but you can't take Panama out of the kid...:)

The petting zoo was a big hit, these goats reminding me of the ones we had when I was a kid.

Father and son, contemplating zebras.

Simon's wonderful hair - here sticking straight up as it did during much of our visit. Tulsa felt very dry to us after the humidity we're used to.

And here, Gwendolyn's favorite, the carousel. Which she rode multiple times.

Fun....!

Christmas - Take Two

Just after our Chocorua stay, we boarded another set of airplanes, and made our way to Tulsa and a whole other set of Christmas festivities.

Like Taisie and Toby, Nana and Grandpa John had gone all out - piles of presents and a tree full of enticing ornaments had Simon mesmerized.

One of Gwendolyn's favorite gifts was this super twirly pink skirt. You'll see from our Tulsa blog posts to come that she rarely took this off.

Great Uncle James joined us for the second Christmas.

And Simon demonstrated his new found love for oranges. When you can't get someone to peel them for you, biting straight into the peel works too...

Another theme of the visit - football. The TV was on most waking hours, and David - when not juggling babies or toddlers - was in heaven.

Christmas - Take One

Chocorua Christmas! Taisie had wonderful stockings prepared for each of us, in the shuffle, I only got a picture of Simon's. But I think the one I loved the most was Tulip's - no letters, just the number 2 and a cutout of some lips. Taisie also baked cinnamon rolls for us that morning, gooey and delicious. There was some concern about the rising of the dough the night before (a phone call to Sam to verify the recipe) - which meant we got two batches, not one - they were all delicious and because there were so many, they lasted a wonderfully long time.



And then long-awaited opening of the presents. Rob arrived early in the morning, laden with good foods, presents, and his cello - emerging through the morning snow in his large brown coat like some kind of Uncle Christmas apparition.

Simy, cozy on his grandmother's lap.

Pouring over Christmas presents - catching cat naps to make up for lost sleep.

And then, all too soon, our Chocorua visit came to an end. A wonderful, wintery dream. Thank you, Toby and Taisie!

Snow!

 

The day after we cut the Christmas tree, we woke up to beautiful snow!

We were all excited - look at Tulip bounding by in the right side of this picture.

Wet sticky snow, perfect for snowmen.

Even for sledding (if you add two patient grandparents for pulling).

Chocorua - Revisited

It's only been a few months since our last visit - it alternately seems like much longer, and like no time has passed at all.

It was so good to see Chocorua again.

To see sweet Tulip, festive in her hunter's orange.

And to see my awesome parents, who went to incredible lengths to make our visit great.

 The day after we arrived, we went out in search of the perfect Christmas tree.

After much deliberation, this is the one we chose. Which looked much smaller in the forest than it did in the living room. But very beautiful. A wonderful beginning to our visit in Chocorua!

Gamboa

Following our trip to Toronto, we had a several chaotic weeks in Gamboa. Lots of work, lots of activities. Gwendolyn reunited with old friends. This photo is deceptively rosy - she and Nico have actually been quite a bit at odds. He's discovered that it's lots of fun to tease her, stealing whatever toy she happens to love the most at the time. She always rises to the bait and gets really upset, making the game infinitely more fun for Nico. It soon degrades into some sort of retaliation, followed by tears. Rough times! We hope that this stage will end soon and they'll find a happier form of their friendship again.

On his part, Simon has spent this time in Gamboa progressing by leaps and bounds. He got his first tooth on Friday, and very emphatically wants to be eating everything everyone else is eating. He's also babbling up a storm. If you listen hard enough, you can hear him say "Hi, Dad!" in this video.

Another huge accomplishment - crawling! He doesn't use his knees, he just propels himself across the floor like an inch worm, surprisingly fast!

And just last week, his first real laugh. Isa was reading him the bat book, each time she made the bat bark (yes, a little strange, I agree), he thought it was hilarious. He couldn't get enough.