Here there be dragons . . .

Well, a plastic allosaurus anyway. I know it looks a bit like the ever popular T-TRex, but it isn't.

I thought this toy, which we picked up today, was cute. Elissa thought it was a bit scary at first, but she thinks it's funny now. Isaac seems mostly nonplussed at this point. We have a couple of dinosaurs in the "little people" series somewhere, we'll probably get them back out and see what transpires. The picture links to a 45 second video, by the way.

Isaac opened some other presents today, those he didn't open on Sunday at or after the party. He really likes cars/trucks/anything you can push at the moment, so the dump truck we got him was quite a hit. This is fortunate, as we seem to have variations on this theme all over the place at the moment. I don't know if the story about the burglar suing his victims after he tripped on a skateboard is real or an urban myth, but if we're broken into, we'll almost certainly find out.

The sit-on bike he received was also popular. Although he's not big enough to sit on it properly and push just yet, he still managed to push Elissa around while she sat on it, much to her non-amusement.

I had the day off work so that we could do something all together for Isaac's birthday. Elissa had been keen to go to a playground at the local shopping centre that has a bunch of movable, stackable shapes (vinyl coated foam blocks, wedges, stairs, cylinders, that kind of thing), as well as a jumping castle. Isaac also enjoys it as he can climb and roll without the normal discomfort he gets when his nose meets our tiled floor.

Anyway, we thought it'd be nice to go up there and let them go nuts for an hour or so. As it turns out, the place was closed for some reason, making both Susanne and myself feel guilty as Elissa had been going on about it for days, and was rather excited. We went to a "conventional" park on the way home, one with swings, a slippery dip and that sort of thing. Both of the kids had fun, but somehow I think we still owe Elissa a trip to the other place.

Isaac's pretty close to walking. I've seen him take 4 or 5 deliberate steps with no support, and he's looking to "let go" more and more. He's also improved from simply pushing any of the wheeled toys into the nearest wall/object to now traversing around the toy and going back again the other way without a break. He also seems to be pointing at things a lot more while babbling.

It's hard to believe it's been a year since Isaac was born, but on the other hand, it's getting harder to imagine the time before we had the kids, too. Some of the individual nights, like last night, where Isaac was up for most of it, do seem quite long, but on the whole, the time has really flown. I don't know if it a case of "time flies while you're having fun", time just passing quicker with age, or both. Regardless, I'm sure it was February when I got up this morning. Damn.

Footnote: The title phrase really ought to have been "Here be dragons", but I prefer it with the additional "they". Most non-gamers won't care. But don't take my word for it.