Doggie!

Next to her family,

Bayli's most favorite things in the whole world are

dogs, babies & Barney.

Lucky for her, anything that's not human qualifies as "doggie"

(even though an actual dog is her favorite...)

I have been waiting & waiting for a warm day to take her to the zoo.

I have been totally looking forward to it.

The perfect day came last week (in between this month's colds, fevers & pink eye), and I packed her shades, zoo hat & baby sunscreen and headed off to the zoo.

I expected her to be beside herself with excitement,

running around saying "doggie! doggie! doggie! doggie!"

- like she did when she saw Marianne's poor cats. :)

Instead I got awestruck silence. :)

She could barely believe her eyes and quietly took it all in.

The giraffe-doggies were her favorite, I think mostly because she could get so close to them. She especially liked them the 2nd time around, when she was generous to share their giraffe crackers with them.

When we got to the car and I buckled her in her seat, she said "Doggie!!!"

I love, love, love these toddler days of discovery.

So fun.

Thanks to Aunt Carolyn,

whose Christmas gift card bought us this year's zoo membership! :)