The Zoo Makes Me Tired...

My birthday is this Sunday. Birthdays on Sundays are never fun, so I am trying to convince Preston that I get an entire "birthday weekend" instead. Since our regular babysitters are out of town (we miss you, Grandma and Grandpa!!), we were trying to think of something fun we could do with the kids. We decided on the zoo. The last time we went to the zoo Arden was an only child, so it felt like it was time to go again.

I was excited to see if Daxton would like the zoo. He loves to look at pictures of animals in books. He especially likes dogs (and says "Ruff!" every time he sees one) and he loves his toy tiger. The first animals we came to were the monkeys, and Daxton was FASCINATED. The monkeys were swinging around on the ropes and when Dax saw them, his eyes got really big. He looked at the monkeys and then he looked at me and pointed at the monkeys as if to say "do you SEE that??" He just stared and stared at them, transfixed, until we decided we better move on and give someone else a chance to look. Daxton screamed when we moved the stroller away from the window, he was so sad to leave. Once he figured out there was more than one thing to see he was okay. He very helpfully pointed at all of the animals, just in case Preston and I didn't see them. Even when the elephants were standing right in front of us, he pointed them out for us.

Arden mostly had one thing on her mind all day. The carousel. Every time we finished looking at an animal exhibit, she would say "Let's go to the merry-go-round now!" I told her we would do the carousel last, so we got to hear that a lot. After the elephants: "Let's go on the merry-go-round!" After the bears, "Let's go on the merry-go-round!" After the leopard...well, you get the picture. I seem to remember doing the same thing when I was little only I always whined to go on the train. Thankfully Arden didn't notice the train so she only had one thing to ask for. She really liked watching the animals, and especially liked the elephants and the penguins. She even remembered that the last time we went to the zoo one of the rhinos had an "owie," and she was glad it was all better now.

Corbie mostly slept in her favorite sleeping-spot, the sling. Seriously, the girl is addicted. She will sleep in her bassinet just fine at night, but during the day I have a really hard time getting her to take a nap anyplace other than strapped to my belly. She LIVES in that thing. Anyway, she did wake up for a while and got to see the bears and the zebras and the penguins. She looked at them, but wasn't too impressed. We didn't get very many pictures of her at the zoo since she was mostly sleeping so here is one we took last Sunday:

In the middle of the day, we made our one big mistake and decided to try to go to the bird show. We got there about 10 minutes early to make sure we got a seat close to the exit, and I think it was the longest 10 minutes of my life. Cora did NOT want me to sit down and made her displeasure known. Daxton wanted to run up and down the row and meet and slobber on all of the lovely people around us. He squirmed hard to get away when we tried to hold him in our laps. Arden reeeeeally wanted to do gymnastics on the handrail over the cement stairs. So after a lot of "come back here!"s and "stop doing that!"s, finally the show started. During the brief periods of time when the birds were actually flying over the audience, Dax was loving it. He even said one of his new words, "WOW!" (Some other new words, "BOOP" (which means "book) "WAWA!" (which means, "May I please have some water?") and "MOW!" (which means, "If it's not too much trouble, I would love to have some more of that at your earliest convenience.") During the rest of the show, Dax was still pretty squirmy and bored. Or so Preston tells me, because I bailed about 5 minutes into the show because Corbie was still not happy with the whole sitting situation. Of course, she fell asleep 20 seconds after I got up left the show.

After that things went pretty good. We didn't get to see the new baby snow leopard, he must have been behind the scenes somewhere when we were by his enclosure. We saw the tiger and the leopard and the giraffes though. Dax really liked the giraffes, and when he saw them he said "ruff!" "ruff!" like he does when he sees a dog. It took me a while to figure out he was trying to say "giraffe," but was just not very good at it.

It was getting close to lunch time, so we decided to skip the small animal building. The smell coming out of the doors as we walked by helped us to make the decision...that building does NOT smell good. So, it was FINALLY time for the carousel. Arden and Dax both rode, and they of course loved it.

Arden was excited to get to ride the elephant, and Dax had a great time shaking the pole.

My sweet girl:

We had a good time, but we were all pretty tired. Dax was so worn out that I think he fell asleep before the car had left the parking lot. I am pretty exhausted myself. What do you think the odds are that Preston will let me take a "birthday nap?" I think I'll go see....

Ego boost

I am so glad to have my kids! I feel so lucky to be their mom and couldn’t love them more. I used to feel sorry that I didn’t get to actually carry my children inside of me and give birth to them myself, but now I am so glad that I was able to adopt them instead. I have learned soooo much about life and about myself through the adoption experience. I have learned to be patient. I have learned that I can’t control everything in my life. I have learned that God answers our prayers, but not always in the way we want him to. I have learned a lot about sacrifice and unselfishness and love. I have also learned one other thing:

It is so much fun to take my little babies out in public and get compliments about how great I look from random strangers.

It seems like babies are stranger-magnets. Strangers usually just don’t come up and start conversations with me, but when I have a baby with me, suddenly everyone wants to talk. They usually start out with a "Oh, he/she is so cute!” and then they usually move on to asking how old the baby is.

Then, when I said things like “Oh, he's three weeks old” or “She’s almost two months” people would look at me in my never-having-been-pregnant body and then tell me how GREAT I LOOK! I love it!! Especially because I know I don’t really look all that great with the dark baggy circles under my eyes and the spit up and who-knows-what-else all over my wrinkled t-shirt. And of course I don’t explain that the reason that I look like I am already back to my pre-pregnancy shape is because I never left it. I just bask in the glow of the compliments of strangers! If that means I am totally vain, so be it. Really, when else am I ever going to get told by complete strangers that I look amazing? (Hint: the answer is NEVER!)

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So, if you are ever in need of a little boost to your ego, borrow a baby from a friend and head to the mall or the baseball game or the supermarket. Then when people tell you that you look amazing, just smile and say "Thank you!"

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Also, Arden got her very first haircut this week! I know, 3 years old is a little late, but she has only really had hair since she was 2. It was just a trim, but she did great!

We went to Cookie Cutters! I wish they would have had a place like this to get your hair cut when I was a kid!

Be careful what you wish for

Earlier this week while Arden and Dax were napping, Corbie and I were sitting on the couch trying to get some work done and the TV was on in the background. It was the last episode of Gilmore Girls. If you haven't seen the show before, it is about a mother and a daughter. In this episode, the daughter is getting ready to move out of her mom's house now that she is graduated from college and off to start her first real job. The night before she leaves, the mom sneaks into her room and just watches her sleep. SAD! Right after this scene Arden comes down the stairs from her nap. Here is the conversation that followed:

ME: Arden, you won’t ever grow up and leave me, will you?
ARDEN (smiling): No!
ME: Great answer! So how are we going to stop you from growing up?
ARDEN (rolling her eyes at me…yes she already does this): I already growing up! Every night I get bigger and bigger!
ME: I know! How much bigger are you going to get?
ARDEN: Soon I be as big as a mountain!
ME: (trying not to laugh) Wow, that is big. But then if you grow up you will want to go to college or get married or something and leave me.
ARDEN: No I not!
ME: Why not?
ARDEN: I be married right here!
ME: Oh really? You will grow up and get married and you and your husband will live here with daddy and me?
ARDEN: Yes.
ME: And your kids too?
ARDEN: Yeah.
ME: Won’t you have a job so you can pay for your own house?
ARDEN: No. I stay here!
ME: What about your husband? What is his job going to be?
ARDEN: Nothing.
ME: Nothing?? And any kids are you going to have?
ARDEN: (holding up a bunch of fingers) One Two Three Four Five Six Seven!
ME: And you are all going to live here in this house?
ARDEN: (smiling) YES!

Hmmmmm…maybe I better rethink this.

Here are just a few other random snapshots from our week. Corbie has discovered her tongue and it is constantly sticking it out of her mouth. I just love her little tongue:

Arden was "helping" me bake something earlier in the week. I let her try to break her first egg. She carefully made a little crack in it, but when she went to open it up, she must have squeezed a little too hard:

It is hard to tell, but there is egg all over her face and even in her hair.

Finally, Daxton was being so sweet one night and gave Cora a bunch of kisses. I went and grabbed my camera but I couldn't time the picture right before he lost interest and ran off to do something else. Here is the closest I could get. Dax is still making his kissy-noise (MUAH!!!)

Our Fourth of July

For our little family, the 4th of July means two things: 1) Fireworks, and 2) Parade/Candy!

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We went up to the fireworks show at the golf course near our house and had a great time. Arden and Dax played in the sand trap while we waited for it to get dark, my awesome sister Val brought glow-sticks to keep the kids entertained after it got dark, there was lots of yummy food and snacks, my mom was there to take Arden to the porta-potty (I HATE those things) and most importantly, no one freaked out when the fireworks started! Hoooray! Arden is usually afraid of fireworks, but she did pretty good sitting on Preston's lap. Here is Daxton's face as the first firework went off (I just happened to be taking his picture):

Obviously, he wasn't quite sure what to think at first, but pretty soon Grandpa had him saying "WOW" after the really big ones. Fall-down-and-die-cute. Corbie fell asleep about 10 minutes before the fireworks started and slept through the whole thing.

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The next morning, we got up and headed up to Riverdale, where my sister lives. They have the perfect parade for us: It is not very long, and (most importantly) there is a LOT of candy thrown:

Seriously, there was so much candy that after a while Arden decided that she had enough candy in her bag and couldn't be bothered to pick any more up. THAT is a lot of candy. Most of the time Daxton would just pick up a piece of candy in each hand and wander around slobbering on the wrappers until someone would take pity on him and unwrap a piece of candy for him. He didn't get the whole "put the candy in the bag" thing until right at the end of the parade. Once he figured it out, he would take off running up the street looking for more on the ground (the parade was over by then). Luckily I had lots of help and he couldn't get far.

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Here is what Corbie thought of the parade:

Actually, this is what she thought of the fireworks too. Oh well...by next year she will be running up the street too. Scary thought.

The Little Things

Today Corbie I have made a major breakthrough! I was so happy about this amazing achievement that I actually did a little happy dance around my kitchen. Here is a picture of this GLORIOUS event:

YAAAAAAY!!!

What....you don't get it?

This is a picture of the first time Corbie used a normal, non-"Soothie" binky. "Why do I care?" you are probably wondering. Honestly, you probably don't. But this is my blog, so I get to write about things that are important to me, and THIS is important. Seriously, you have no idea how important this is.

For the uninitiated, "Soothies" are the round, green binkies that the hospitals use (see picture below). Corbie immediately loved her Soothie from the hospital. Which was great. With one exception. The part of the binkie that goes in her mouth is straight. Which means it falls out easily. Very easy. Ridiculously easy. Any time Corbie stopped sucking on it for even a second, it fell out. Or if she sucked on it too hard, it would pop out. She had to maintain just the right amount of suckiness for it to stay put, and she is VERRRRY bad at it. So the binkie fell out a lot. I am talking a LOT. Dozens (if not hundreds, maybe thousands) of times a day.

And since the outside of these wonderful things are round, when they hit the ground they ROLL. And roll. For what seems like miles. They also seek out places to hide (under couches, under tables, behind doors, behind bookshelves, etc. etc. etc.) as if they were alive and trying desperately to get away. And since these binkies don't have a ring on them, it is super hard to find any clips that you can use to anchor them to the baby. All of this means that I have spent the last 2 1/2 months picking up, chasing and/or on my hands and knees frantically searching for the binkie. But Cora refused to accept any other kind of binkie until today. She would suck on them for 0.0001 seconds, then make a gagging sound and spit them out. Then she would look at me like I was crazy and start to cry. But today I thought I would try again, and miracle of miracles it worked! (this is the part where I did the happy dance). No gagging! No spitting out! And the binkie hasn't popped out once! She is napping with it now, and I have already clipped it to her.

Now you know. Weird things make me happy.

Another thing that makes me happy is sunsets. We have had some really pretty ones this last week or so since is stopped raining. I took this a couple of days ago from our deck: