Here is a recent picture from a zoo trip. The girls love playing on the bronze statues all around the zoo. When they are more interested in the statues than in seeing more exhibits, we know it's about time to head home! Just before this photo was taken, the girls were playing "shoot the lions," "tame the lions," "ride the lions," "I'm a lion, too!" and "Let's be a lion family. . .R can be the baby lion!"

We loved the monkey exhibit, where we watched a mama monkey keep ahead of her little baby all around their enclosure. We gasped as she forcefully placed him on the chain links beside her some 10s of feet above the ground. But he was equal to it, despite his small size. When he got stuck, his big brother would come and help him out. He tried to nurse, but the mama wasn't interested in that, either. The few times the baby caught up, she'd only let him cling to her for several seconds before repeating the "disengage" routine.

This is the opposite of what we've observed of the robins in our back yard. Several weeks ago, we saw a small robin in the back yard. He had feathers, but not enough to fly. His mama hopped out of the bush and beckoned for him to join her under the lilacs. Nothin' doin'. She flew away and it was several minutes. . .the girls and I discussing whether we should "rescue" the baby before the neighborhood cats found him. . .before she flew back with some insect in her beak. She got close enough for the baby to just nip at the insect, and then hopped backward into the lilacs, the baby following her the whole way. The outcome for this particular robin family is hopeful. Since then, we've seen the fledgling hopping around with his sibling, both of them being fed by the parent robins, who are looking skinnier and skinnier as the juveniles get larger and larger. Not for long, though. Just today we saw our juveniles attempting to "dive for worms" by themselves. Not very successfully, but with all the correct mannerisms of the parent robins: head to the side, hop, hop, look around, head to the side, peer into the grass, dive. . .