baby wayne

Monday was otis’ first birthday … it seems almost impossible to believe that it was a year ago that tiny baby otis was born and our life with him began. It seems like such a long time ago but, at the same time, that it can’t really be that a year has passed already.

The day began with the opening of presents. Despite the very loose wrapping of the gift otis needed some help to open them - eventually he was able to start playing with his two new wooden toys. The toys themselves are a yellow bulldozer and a green dump truck, to go with his orange steamroller. Otis gains immense satisfaction from playing with wheels – any of his toys that has any wheel on it can entertain him from long periods of time. He sits with the toy in his lap and rolls the wheel round and round with his fingers.

After a long walk with yuki and a restful late morning sleep, otis celebrated his first birthday with his first trip to the zoo. Otis seemed to enjoy the zoo, although it is not clear that he derived his enjoyment entirely from his first sight of some of the zoo’s inhabitants.

Although the tiger was sadly unsighted and the seals were a little listless otis got to make the acquaintance of a giant tortoise, orang-utan and gorilla, jaguar and snow leopards, meerkats and lions, and giraffes and elephants.

Otis seemed to be curious about the giraffes who were sharing their accommodation with a couple of zebras and and an ostrich or two, and the giant tortoise captured his attention for a while. The giant tortoise usually hides in his bungalow in the colder months, but was lured out with some hay.

By the time we had the opportunity to see the elephants otis seemed to be more interested in the take away coffee cup of someone standing in our vicinity. Even when the elephant sprayed water at onlookers it still wasn’t enough for otis to be sufficiently diverted.