The Zoo

Do you ever make new year's resolutions in the fall? I do. There's something about the earlier evenings, the bite in the air, and the falling leaves that makes me feel like I need to buckle down and be virtuous before winter sets in.

I've been going on runs in the evenings, we have adopted an inflexible family budget, and we've been cooking many good meals. Another one of my autumn resolutions is clearly to become a blogging maniac. I don't even know if anyone's looking at these posts or photos, but the act of putting them up here makes me feel better about how far away so many friends and family members are.

Here are a couple of photos of Celeste at the zoo today. It is in a nature preserve where you can see hawks soaring above the modest exhibits. It's staffed by eager volunteers and was close to being empty today. We took a picnic lunch with us. She was at first intrigued and then ultimately frightened by the aggressive goats in the petting area of the zoo. She spent a long time standing and leaning on the railing, observing the ostriches stretch their broad wings and pump their space-alien heads around. I picked her up and could hear her breathing heavily.

As you can tell from the photos, she's really not a baby anymore. I predict that she'll be walking within 2 weeks. I am looking forward to that because these days I spend a lot of time stooped over, holding her arms while she marches around. I keep picturing myself with a hump. Maybe independent walking should be Celeste's autumn resolution.

You might be able to tell that Celeste fell asleep 3 minutes after that last photo was taken.