Monday, June 3, 2013

The Summer adventures continue!

Happy Monday, everyone! 

Ashley comin' at ya after yet another weekend full of adventures! This past weekend was FULL of fun and learning! MH and I took Baby C to the Zoo for the first time and it had probably been at least 15 years since I had been, and MH was pretty sure it had been closer to 20 for him! I, for one, could not believe how much the Zoo had changed. All for good, but still, it was like a place I had never seen before! Baby C did love it though! Well... the parts he was awake for. Hehe... Babies still have to nap and it is very difficult to break this kid of his schedule - not that I'm complaining - even though he seems to be pretty flexible most of the time. Moving on... C got to feed the Giraffes and that was honestly what I was looking forward to the most! When I was little, I remember going and being able to get these weird, super fat cracker things and trying to reach up to them. Now, you walk down to this area, where you are completely surrounded by the Giraffes and are just about at eye level! This definitely made things easier. In the center of everything was the line where you could buy some lettuce to feed the Giraffes. I should have just brought a bag with me, but I was still not convinced there wouldn't be the cracker things, even though my sister had already told me! lol That was another really fun thing, by the way... my sister brought all three of her kids, and my parents even came along! It was exhausting but oh, so fun, and we even got to meet up with Kailly and Princess N a few times throughout the day! Okay... sorry, my brain is all over the place tonight. Back to the Giraffes. C didn't notice them right away, but instead thought that the wood fencing was pretty fascinating. Haha! So... desperate for him to touch, feel, see, smell and experience everything possible (notice I did not say taste) at the Zoo, I grabbed a piece of lettuce, stuck it in his hand, and let nature take its course! 






I just realized I may not have warned you, so allow me to do so now... prepare for an overload of pictures coming up! ;) 

As you can see above, C was pretty fascinated and really enjoyed the feel of the Giraffes' tongues. This same situation repeated a few times throughout the course of the feeding area, but it was so funny! Don't worry though! I had lots of hand sanitizer and baby wipes standing by before any fingers went back into any mouths. After the Giraffes, C wasn't TOO into a whole lot else. He is a very tactile kid, but didn't really get to touch a whole lot more. We did get to feed birds though! 



My little man was more than happy to stare at all of the birds and was completely in awe of all of the sounds, but he was even happier to not touch the bird, thank you very much. I can't even explain how much fun it was to watch him discover and explore everything! More than that, it was so special to experience that with my nieces and nephew. There is one niece who is a year older than C at 1 1/2, my nephew is 2 1/2 and my oldest niece is 5. Having, the three youngest cousins so close together is so much fun and hearing my oldest niece retaining and repeating all of the information just warms my heart! That girl loves learning! My nephew had a blast with these guys:
He just wanted to know everything! He was first absolutely amazed by them (as well as just about everything else in the Zoo), but also wanted to know "where go?" and why "dirt on him"? and "what's that?" By the time we hit the Elephants, Baby C was ready for his first nap but fought and fought and fought, and actually fell asleep after the birds. However, he was awake again by the Hippos, Rhinos and Monkeys. He was pretty into the Monkeys! He just kept staring at them and craning his neck to keep staring at certain ones as we continued along. Personally, I found this guy to be a lot of fun:

And now here is an obligatory photo of a Hippo, because Shannon loves them so much! 

So the Zoo was awesome and we were all absolutely wiped afterward! MH and I took C to the gift shop to pick something out to remember his first Zoo trip. There was a sale on the medium sized stuffed animals, so we quite literally took each one down from the walls and shelves and picked the two that C reacted to the most. In the end, we walked out with a Tree Frog and a Rhinoceros. :)

The next day, we met some friends from out of state and went to breakfast together and then headed over to the Museum of Nature and Science. I had never been before, so I was pretty excited! I didn't take my camera in, as I thought it might be a bit disrespectful, so I only have one picture on my phone of MH and C in the prehistoric exhibit. C loved this exhibit - especially the dinosaurs- and enjoyed touching everything he was allowed to. :) He also seemed to enjoy the space center. We got to go to a planetarium show about black holes, narrated by Liam Neesen (sp?) and it was pretty awesome! C sat in there pretty well for a good chunk but then decided he was done. I didn't let him face the screen, since I thought he might get dizzy. I knew the volume wouldn't bother him because his father and I are incredibly loud people, but in the end, he was sleepy and a really bright flash of light made him uneasy... can't blame him! So MH graciously took baby C out into the rest of the Space exhibit while I finished the show. It was really awesome, but my personal favorite was the Egypt and Mummies exhibit, and oddly, this was probably the smallest exhibit of them all! I would still like to go back just so I could spend more time in this exhibit. I also really enjoyed the Prehistoric exhibit, but we kinda had to rush through the end of it because C was just done and hungry and we had to make it to the planetarium. All in all, we had an incredible weekend! We did, once again, take C by the gift shop, but felt it necessary to buy him something more educational. So, he has a poster of the Period Table, which will be hanged in his room as soon as we get a frame for it. :) 

Today, I started my game of catch up and unpacking again. However, I also had to run errands, so it ended up being a packed, busy day and I got a lot of things half way done. But it still wasn't bad! I finally bit the bullet and started making the cloth wipes for Baby C. I came to the final decision that it was necessary when I forgot my makeup remover wipes and tried to use a baby wipe. When something that is supposed to be gentle on baby skin burned the dickens out of my eye, I decided I wasn't okay with it being used on my child, who already has super sensitive skin! So... I got advice from a few credible sources on CDing (cloth diapering) and combined their suggestions for a wipe solution, using a mixture of water, coconut oil, baby wash, and tea tree oil. I'll let you all know how it goes! I sewed close to 20 wipes today, which I cut from old receiving blankets. Thankfully C doesn't need them anymore. If he did though, I would probably go pick up some of the cheaper CD liners that Walmart carries and cut those up and stitch them. So, here is what I've got! 

I have four of these containers to keep the wipes in and I have decided to go ahead and store them already soaked in the solution... At least for now. We'll see how it goes! I'm sure I'll end up changing things several times until I figure out what works absolutely best for us, but for now I'm excited! :) 

C also started purees today! His first one is mashed bananas. The initial reaction was funny... he sorta gave me a face that said "what did you let me do!?" After that, he was really excited about the spoon, but not so much all that stuff that was on it. This evening, however, he was much more into eating the bananas. :) In fact, he kept opening his mouth for more! 

Okay, I know this has been a pretty long post, just full of info... I have just two more things to share. First... I am proud because my flowers in front of my house are blooming and are terribly pretty, I think! 

Last... I completely forgot to do a quick fun fact on Friday, so I decided to do two of them today! In sticking with the fun we had at the Zoo:
Did you know that there are three species of Zebra? They are the Plain's Zebra, Grevy's Zebra, and the Mountain Zebra. There are subspecies within the Plain's Zebra and the Mountain Zebra, but the Grevy's Zebra is the one we most commonly see or see pictures of.

Did you know that scientists still have not figured out why Giraffes have such long necks? At least... Not for sure. We used to be told that it was so that they could reach the tops of the trees, but this has never been an absolutely necessary function. They are cousin to the Roller, which is short with a short neck, and most resembles a Zebra in pattern. Take this one back to your littles! I want to hear what they have to say! - Why do YOU think a Giraffe has such a long neck!?

Alright... well, that's enough for me! I hope you all had a spectacular weekend and that your week is truly beautiful! 

From my family to yours... Zebra love and hugs! 
Until next time
Ashley ;) 

2 comments:

  1. Roxanna says, "They are super long because they are Jesus's favorite animal!....he wanted them to be close to him and see them better!"

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    1. Oh my gosh, Courtney... That is so cute! :)

      Ashley

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