Yesterday morning we had him in his walker and he was trying to go through the doorway and get out of the bedroom where we were keeping him contained.  To keep him in the room we had placed a floor fan in the doorway and had it on for circulation.  Matthew came up to the fan, saw he couldn’t get around it and decided to ram it – and managed to move it about an inch.

He still wasn’t able to get out, so he backed up a bit and hit it again, which moved it a little further but still not enough that he could leave.  So, he backed up about two feet, which made me think he was going to go some other direction.  He wasn’t.  He then moved as fast as he could and rammed the fan at full speed!  At that point I decided to step in and pull him out of his walker before he got a really good run at it and broke the dang thing.

Stubborn kid.

Anyway, we hit the zoo and went to the aquarium where this time Matthew stayed awake for the sharks.  As you can see, he thought they were pretty cool

We also hit the jellyfish again.  Quite a difference from the last time.

Mathew then

Matthew now

They grow too fast.  Everyone told me that, but now I know for myself

And one of him hanging out with Quigley at the window.  They like to sit there and watch the leaves get blown around.  Quigley really enjoys Matthew and will give him baths sometimes.  He also doesn’t mind that sometimes Matthew will grab his ears or flop on top of him.

He’s a good cat.

Now I have a Skil sander, drill press and bandsaw – the basic tools required to make some grips.

Guess what this little white duck will be working on today 

It’s amazing to me how fast he is learning things.  He’s growing so much and always interested in what’s going on around him.  He has a bouncy chair that he would stay in all day if we let him, he loves bouncing up and down and will give little cries of joy as he kicks off from the ground.

My mom made the mistake of attempting to feed him is sweet potatoes while he was still in the bouncy chair.  Well, he LOVES sweet potatoes and he will bounce when he is excited and happy.  You can guess the results.  I asked her how she was not aware o what would happen.

She told me to shut up.

That’s mom speak for “I love you son”…. or at least that’s what I’m going with in this instance.

Click on the image to embiggen it

I may have the final major parts done in by the beginning of August. After that I’ll need to build the train, carriage cars and some environmental props. Once all that is done it will be off to texturing, lighting and then I will call it done.

The end seems to be in sight. Let’s just hope all this work can translate into a job.

Platform view

And from the 31st Street Stairs.

With that in mind, last week I said to the wife “We should go to the zoo” and so we did.  I was too busy having a good time to take a lot of shots, so I’ll have to do more of that next time, but I did get a few of Jamie and Matthew that I thought I would post up from my phone.  The others are on the camera and I need to dig out the cable for it and off load them.

We first hit the zoo portion of the biopark and walked around there looking at the raptors, birds, elephants, giraffes and primates.  We had originally planned on making it over to see the big cats, but they were opposite the direction to get to the train that goes to the aquarium.  So, since it was getting hot we decided that the aquarium called and headed to the trains.

Matthew handled the train and the zoo like a champ, mostly sleeping, but once we were at the aquarium and in where it was nice and cool he woke up and happily gazed at all the colors and watched the fish swimming by ten foot high glass walls.  There was even a spot where you could pet the fish.  You would stick two fingers in the water and the rays would swim past and rub up against you.  One ray was a really attention hound and would push the others out of his way so he could rub against your hand.  All in all very cool and I look forward to introducing Matthew to that when he is old enough.

He did become enchanted with the jellyfish tank and I got a very good shot of him and Jamie in front of it.  I was in dumbfounded amazement though as I watched people try to take pictures in a dark room to try and capture the atmosphere of the tanks and they would use a flash – which totally ruins the shot.  Ah well, people are stupid I guess.

Anyway, here are a few shots for now

Matt – ready to go (he just had his bottle)

Hangin’ with the Jellies.

Next month we are thinking of going to an Isotopes game, we’ll leave Matt with the grandparents for that though since he probably wouldn’t enjoy it as much.

Still can’t believe that they would tear this down.  People are stupid