One Jaguar and One White Tiger

Last Saturday (August 6th), Eric and I took the boys to the Houston Aquarium.  While I have to admit that I was not as impressed with the Houston Aquarium as I was with the Dallas World Aquarium, we still enjoyed a train ride through the shark tunnel, rode the ferris wheel, touched some surprisingly soft sting rays, and saw the two white tigers.  This time, instead of Michael being mesmerized with the white tiger like he had been with the jaguar, it was Nathan's turn to reach out and interact with the large pacing white tiger.  Unfortunately, I forgot my real camera, so I tried to capture a few shots with the camera phone, but I've included a better picture of the white tiger that I found on the internet.  The funny thing is that, according to the Chinese Zodiac (and just to clarify: we do NOT believe in any of that Chinese Zodiac stuff), Nathan is a white tiger - the tiger comes around every 12 years, but every 5th time, i.e. 60 years, the tiger is the rare white tiger.  So I call Michael "my little Jaguar" and Nathan "my little white tiger."  Well, ok, I call them "Sweetheart," but when they're older, it'll be "Jaguar" and "Tiger." :-)

The good picture of the white tiger:

Nathan reaching out to touch the tiger as he paced by.

Both boys did enjoy the tiger exhibit.

Of course, we had to ride the train!

Other things going on with us: Nathan now knows how to climb down the stairs feet first!  Of course, I still don't trust him to do it without my supervision, but I am very proud of him.  Today, he also pulled himself to a stand on one of our push toys and walked halfway across the room pushing the toy.  He can't stand or walk independently yet, and although he's cruised along couches and coffee tables, this is the first time that I saw him "walk" with a moving toy.  Michael recognizes most of the letters of the alphabet now and can associate many of their sounds, too!  Thank-you "Letter Factory" by Leap Frog!!  Of course, he's misinterpreted some of the sounds.  For example, the "L", he makes an "oh" sound!  "Q" he calls "Jew."  But for the most part, he's doing really well.  When I teach him the correct sounds, he stubbornly insists that his interpretation is the correct one, but when he's a little older, I'll work harder at the corrections.  Right now, it's hard not to laugh at how cute and funny it all sounds.

Favorite toys: Michael's is still his Take-Along Gordon & Percy trains that he got for Christmas.  Right now, Nathan's is a red and yellow car with light-up headlights that sings "Toot, Toot, Chugga, Chugga, Big Red Car" and "In the Big Red Car we like to ride through the rainbow and the countryside."