When Nature Calls

This past weekend we took Joseph to the Nature Museum at the park near our house. It's not anything terribly exciting - just some exhibits of creatures native to Charlotte (like a raccoon, opossum and skunk - basically anything you can see in our neighborhood on the night before trash pickup), a small botanical garden where a bunch of varieties of butterflies live and a large play section with some "earthworm tunnels" (i.e. your garden variety tunnel found at any play ground), water table and puzzles. Joseph seemed to like it. He didn't get super excited by anything, but he stayed in his stroller without complaint for close to an hour (that's a big deal in this "I want to crawl and climb non-stop" thing he is going through right now).

Here are some pictures of Joseph with the native creatures:

A skunk

An Owl

Much to my dismay, the exhibit Joseph got the most excited about were the snakes. I seriously hate snakes. They scare the crap out of me and even the mention of one will make my skin crawl.

Notice him pointing - this is a new skill. When he is excited by something and wants to touch it, he starts pointing. Isn't he sooooo smart! (Yeah, I know, they are supposed to be doing that at this age).

The best part of the trip for Joseph was being let out of his stroller to crawl around. He had fun trying to play with the "big kids" (the 3 and 4 year olds) and putting anything that wasn't nailed down in his mouth. This toy lizard was a particular favorite:

After we crawled through some tunnels and splashed on the water table (made to look like a river), we headed out to the park for a little stroll and people watching. There was some weird activities fair going on and kids were having a dance comepetition, people were fishing in the pond and a bunch of old people were doing water color painting. It was an odd scene. Joseph did get to meet "Ray", the mascot for the Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation Department. Apparently this department's motto is "Mecklenburg County - Recreate All Year!". Whoever they paid to come up with that should be fired.