Colors, Counting and the Zoo!

First some fun milestones... then some zoo pictures!

Julianna is counting up to ten. She loves to count now. She will count anything - her barrettes, jellies at the restaurant, toy cars, etc! She needs help sometimes, like we need to ask her "What comes after 5??" and she'll think about it and shout out "SIX!" - with this proud grin from ear to ear! She is so proud of herself that she can count and of course we praise her up and down! The other day when we were at the beach, she said (out of nowhere) '4 beach-geese!' (That's her word for Seagulls). I was thinking "Where??" ... and then I looked up only to see 4 Seagulls on top of the pavilion. She counted them and announced loudly how many were there! Awww!

She knows a few colors - Red, blue, yellow, green, white and sometimes purple. Julianna was pointing out the white cars on the road the other day. So cute!

Julianna is totally head-over-heels in love with mommy or daddy reading her a story before bedtime each night. Every night for about a month or so now, she says "mommy read - daddy read" or she'll pick out who she wants to read to her at night and she picks the book. So cute! So we pull up the ottoman next to her bed, she climbs into her bed, and we read to her. She hangs on every word & every picture. Then we ALWAYS end the book with something that relates to bedtime such as, "And then the little bunny went to sleep because it was night time..." so then Julianna knows it's bedtime, and she lays down, snuggles up to her animals, turns on her seahorse, and we say goodnight & close the door.

The other morning, Brian and I heard Julianna talking in her room... and we looked at each other with the same look of "What is she doing?". So I snuck over to the door and what do I see? She pulled the ottoman over next to her bed (like we do when we read her a story), and she was sitting on it with a book, reading to her stuffed animals! She turned and saw me, and gave me the biggest smile ever! Talk about super-duper cuteness! I just adore this age she is - she is doing new things like this all the time to make us smile & be proud parents!


And finally ... here is the FIRST PART of the Zoo pictures from the Turtle Back Zoo from a couple weekends ago. (Part 2 to come later! I had too many to choose from)
This was our first time visiting this zoo, it was 45 minutes from our house and what a surprise it was. Such a nice zoo! It was not too large, so we had no issue seeing the entire place in under a day - plus the entrance fee was minimal - and we were able to bring our lunch with us. Julianna loved the zoo!! If you live in Northern NJ or NY - check it out here.

Hello Kitty. 

I love his tail! 

The Bald Eagle might be my favorite bird! So beautiful. 

"Hey wake up!"

I love their colors. So pretty! 

Jaguar on the prowl! 

...On the prowl for toddlers... 

Julianna was soooo interested in the Jaguar. 

Hello Sleeping Kitty. 

There was a big Aviary with hundreds of Parakeets flying all over. 

Julianna got to feed them - I'll show those in Part 2. 

View of the zoo walking path 

Red Panda 

Part 2 - coming soon.