Daddy Chooses the Zoo

Well, Andrew's time has come. He's in the last year of his 20s! He chose to celebrate his birthday by taking off work and taking me & Drew to the zoo.

Remember, Andrew works from home, so our normal "alarm" is Drew's giggling over the monitor around 9:00am. He wakes up at 9am like clockwork. Well, on Andrew's birthday Drew gave him a big, fat present--Drew slept in until 10:15am!!! And therefore, we did too! I was so shocked to roll over and see that my body had actually allowed me to sleep in like that. We got up, got ready, loaded up the push car, and headed to Memphis. We had so much fun that day! We figured out that Wednesday is a lot better choice for visiting day than Thursday & Friday. We were actually able to park near the entrance and not be shoulder-to-shoulder with 5000 other sweaty zoo-goers.

I am really excited about taking Drew to SDC in a few weeks, but have been a little nervous about how he would do with rides. Not long ago, he FREAKED OUT over a silly carousel that he was crazy about 2 months earlier. Well, yesterday this was him unable to take his eyes off the carousel because he wanted on it so badly!

So we purchased the tickets to let him ride. It went like this:





I'm not so worried about SDC!

Well after all that excitement, we headed over to the rides section of the zoo which was none too impressive, but finally found the ticket lady, made a purchase, and held our breath...


Success! He gets to stay in the family after all. He likes rides! He kept yelling "Whoa!!!" as the ride spun him around 1000 times.

Oh, then we saw this adorable little guy....



How sweet, huh? ;)

All in all, we had a splendid day with daddy! We'll be celebrating more this weekend!

Spring? Is it really you?

Come stay a while!

We are loving the warmer temperatures coming our way here in north Mississippi. Last week it was in the 70s for several days...we're talking shorts and t-shirts! We tried to take advantage of it while it lasted by getting outside whenever possible.

One day Daddy took Drew to the zoo by himself. Since mommy's crazy tendencies weren't there to stop them, they played in the wading pool!


"Dad! You're the coolest! Mom would freak out if she were here! She would only be able to think about how nasty this water might be! "


I love these chubby feet!

A few days later Drew and I played outside for over an hour. We rode in the wagon & car, swept the sidewalk, and ran around and around the house. Nothing makes my little one happier than being outdoors.


Then last week, it was a gorgeous Thursday! Andrew took off 2-3 hours from work and we headed to the zoo again.

A real man wears a pink backpack...with his wife's name monogrammed on the back...from high school. Love you, hun.

Drew was most impressed with the bamboo leaves, "animals of the night," fish, monkeys, and the cheetah. He even attempted to say "cheetah" several times--quite a feat for a little one who would rather do than talk.

When I saw this huge tiger, I thought of Sher Chan (sp?) from The Jungle Book!


We took a leaf off the tree for Drew. He played with it for the rest of the trip. I think we need to plant A LOT more trees in our yard if one leaf will provide that much entertainment.

One of my FAVORITE parts of the Memphis Zoo is the ability to eat lunch with the monkeys. The restaurant has a glass wall between the monkeys and the eating area. One of the monkeys came up right by us and played with Drew for the longest time. Drew kept jumping up at down, waving at him, and making his monkey noise. It was so fun to experience that through a child's eyes.

I didn't have my SD card in my camera (duh, Audra!), so I took a video with my Android:






We had an incredible day that day was. It was fun to see Drew's mind working as if he thought, "That thing looks like the monkey in my book at home! I bet it makes the same noise!" Big light bulbs going off for him!

Drew is getting to be so much easier to take out to places since he can sit/stand in a booth to eat, walk around on his own, and has a longer attention span. I have a feeling this summer is going to be FUN. We've actually planned a vacation in July with my mom and dad and Kacie, Judd, and Caroline. We're heading up to a condo in Branson for 4 nights/5 days. I haven't been on a real vacation in forever, so I'm REALLY excited! All this warm weather makes for so much more to do!

So come on, Spring. Come in. Sit down a while. Make the summer heat wait a while. We enjoy your company around here!