Okay, so it wasn't a LIVE elephant, but the UA mascot, Big Al. Given that we live in the land of THE University, every Friday is Alabama-day at school, and the kids are encouraged to wear red in support of everybody's favorite team (my blog, I can declare it the favorite; you don't have to agree if you don't want to)!

Anyway! Yesterday, said elephant came to visit the kids at school. I SOOO wanted to be there when my child saw Big Al for the first time, but didn't want to risk messing up his day with an appearance from mom. My co-worker's daughter also goes to school (she's in an older class) and my co-worker wanted pictures of her little girl, so she volunteered to run down there and get some pics - then thought better of it (for the same reason I did). So we sent a third co-worker down there armed with a camera. She got some most excellent pictures of my child. She said he was playing really hard on the playground and didn't even notice when Big Al came out. His teacher got his attention and picked him up to take him to see Big Al. Iliya was initially curious and waved...but when they got fairly close, Iliya decided he didn't really like the big elephant so much and began crying. His teacher set him down and he ran over to a small crawl-through-tunnel where he watched Big Al until the big departure a couple minutes later. My co-worker got some great pics, but her battery died, and she says she will get them to me Monday. I can't wait for you to see them.

In other news, daycare is going really well. At dropoff, Iliya puts up a pretty good fight, but he calms down within a few minutes, and plays. His teachers tell me that Friday, they saw a lot more smiling and laughter from Iliya, which makes me very pleased. He layed down for naptime without trouble (and no falling off his cot) and took a good nap. When I went to pick him up, they were just starting snack time. I slipped into the observation booth, just to watch for a couple minutes. Can I tell you what a cute child I have?? The assitant teacher was preparing to give each child their crackers, and Iliya began banging on the table in anticipation. One by one, the rest of the 6 children joined in the anticipatory table banging. By this time, the lead teacher had joined me in the booth for a sec to let me know how well things had gone that day. She laughed with me at the table banging and went on to tell me that they had a similar issue at lunch, with anticipatory screeching. Fortunately, my child was not the instigator in that one, but she said that he more than happily joined in!

As snacktime was drawing to a close, the children began leaving the table. I noticed Iliya was trying to get every last drop out of his milk glass. The kid next to him was turned around, focused on something totally unrelated...so before anyone could get to him, Iliya reached over, picked up the other kid's milk glass and began chugging. At that point, it was time to leave the observation booth to pick him up for the day. And man, was he happy to see me!

A good end to a good day.

Except, wait! There's more! When we got home, I took a video. Can you believe it? I have to use my small digital camera to take videos, since that is the only way I know to get them on my computer. But it's a video nonetheless. And - I know I'm biased, but I think it's pretty cute. Ignore me - I'm being loud, but necessary in the "trick" process. :)



And now, every time I watch this video, I get the responses 'in stereo' - I get the Iliya on the video responding...and the Iliya IRL responding. It is hilarious.

And last night, we went to the new Moe's in town. Iliya has taken to "dipping" things - in ketchup, dressing, whatever is available. So far, he doesn't HAVE to have anything for a dipping sauce, but he does seem to enjoy it. Anyway, we got him a kids' quesadilla, and it was pretty small. It came with chips, but he didn't seem to be enjoying the chips so much. So I went to the salsa bar & picked out a mild salsa for him. Probably not the best idea in the world, but I did it nonetheless. He really liked the salsa. So much, in fact, that he completely turned it - bottoms up and drank it. Yuck. But to each his own, I suppose!

Alright - dad is home from Birmingham, so we are going to think about going to the Quad for some pregame festivities. Roll Tide!! (Or in Iliya-speak, "TI-TIII!!")