The Day After Thanksgiving

On the day after Thanksgiving, we raked our leaves again.  Mei Li and Stephen alternated between bike riding and helping out.  I kept my eyes on Mi Na as I raked.  

She still has that funny toddler walk, belly out, legs out a little bit wide, arms moving quickly.  She walked over to the pile of leaves I was raking.  She clapped her hands together in the pile, making sure some leaves were sandwiched between them.  She grunted like it was such hard work lifting her tiny pile of five leaves, and then she walked over to the bag to put them in.

Most of the leaves didn't make it, so as she repeated her chore over and over again, I would pick her up so all of her leaves could make it into the bag.  There were a few times when I just stopped raking so I could watch her and let my heart swell with pride at my industrious little sprout.

When we were finished with the leaves, we headed over to the National Zoo.  I took all sorts of pictures of animals, but I don't care to include any of them.  For me, the most amusing thing about going to the zoo is watching my children watch the animals.  They have the funniest reactions and I love how they line up in front of the exhibit like little ducklings that I can count.

We learned that there is an elephant named Meena.  There's also the Panda named Mei.  It makes me think we should sponsor an animal one day and name him Stephen.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  It was a beautiful, sunny day and we all had a wonderful time.  We ended the day with dinner at Two Amy's.  It was delish.  I'm in love with pizza.  And my family.  I loved that day.