4 years ago I posted his first photo online and now, thousands (ok, tens of thousands) of photos later, David has turned 4 years old.
It’s so hard to believe. On one hand time has flown, and on the other it seems like he’s been with us forever. Come April, he’s going to make one heck of a big brother.
Happy Birthday Buddy!
Last night as we were leaving David’s YMCA swim class, the sun was setting behind some clouds and it was already starting to get dark outside. A few blocks away, nestled among other buildings, the tower of the Cathedral caugh my eye; it was lit with several lights shining up on its sides which really made it stand out from dusk. I kept my eye on it for a few seconds as we started walking, but didn’t bother saying to Ana or David about how it looked to me.
I really wish I would have been prepared with a camera, but that’s beside the point.
Just a moments after I stopped looking at it, I hear “Ooooh, that’s really pretty”. It was David. He had noticed it too.
Ana and I try to point things like that out to him as often as we can; trying to teach him to stop and take note of how things look. All the times we are out together, and I have my camera, I try to explain why I’m taking certain pictures. I don’t know why I’m surprised, but it’s rubbing off on him.
Saturday we went back over to Monticello for their monthly running of their “Southern 401″ steam engine. David enjoys trains period, but particularly likes the sights and sounds of the big steam engines. Between runs I got to take David up to the engine cabin so he could see everything, including the fire.
On our ride from the station to downtown Monticello we rode in “the green car” at David’s request, and on the way back we rode on the wooden open-air car so we could really see and hear everything. If you decide to try it out, the timing of everything works out well for a ride into town, lunch at the Brown Bag Deli, and a ride back.
There are plenty more photos available, have a look.
And finally, here’s a video of our ride.
Happy 4th of July everyone!
We spent the morning taking a walk through Lincoln Memorial Gardens and generally just kicking around.
David brought his camera along too, and we had fun stopping every now and then to take some photos.
It has been a while since our last photo session, so this morning I got all of the gear out and setup for a quick shoot.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t so quick. And wow it takes alot of effort to get a 2.5 year old to cooperate!
After about an hour and a half I felt like I had a sufficient set to choose from and we called it quits. The rest can be found in the gallery.
Yesterday after work we went out to the fairgrounds to partake in the 2010 Illinois State Fair. Unlike the past 2 weeks, the weather was great and made for a very pleasant evening of walking around.
David got to see and touch many animals, as well as enjoy a Corn Dog and some Lemon Shake-Up. With the small crowds and great weather we were able to make our rounds to everything we usually do, with the exception of Conservation World which closes early. If this great weather continues we may just head back out there sometime this week.
On short notice, we decided to take a day trip to St. Louis today. When we first woke up this morning the weather didn’t look favorable, at 7am St. Louis was showing 94%+ humidity, so we figured we would just find something indoors. But on the way there the sky was overcast, the temperature wasn’t too bad, and the humidity had dropped – so to the zoo we went!
David had a really good time, he really wanted to see the Lions more than anything. He also really enjoyed all of the fish in the tanks he got to gaze into.
The cats are always a hit too.
It was alot of fun watching David get so excited – his last visit was exactly 1 year ago when he couldn’t express himself so well. Today he was sure to hop up for every exhibit, until he just got too tired near the end of the afternoon. We knew he was tired when he told his “No, I don’t want to see more elephants…”
And for the first time we can remember, we actually got to see the penguins outside. These went over very well 
David has been singing this a bit lately and it’s pretty funny…
(edit: video hosted by Vimeo now)