Baby Clothes

At the request of Grandma Bonnie and Great-Aunt JoEllen, here are the baby's 'come home' outfits. This little pink dress has been in the closet for over three years now. Will it finally be its chance to meet the washing machine?? Only time will tell! The boys picked out the little boy's outfit. Noah liked it because it had red in it. Benjamin liked it because it has "Winnie-a-pooh" on it.

Campbell Wildlife Refuge

Just to keep things interesting, we've added some new creatures to our household. Aunt Cynthia brought Noah some tadpoles. As we discovered last year with the butterfly, daddy and I are just as excited about the whole process (if not more so) so we were fine with it. We went to the pet store and got a nice new aquarium to put them in. These pictures show the transplant from the pickle jar to the tank. We started with about 5 tadpoles and a few bonus snails to help keep things clean. We have already had one frog - about the size of my pinkie nail. Noah and daddy took him to the creek last night to set him free. We were concerned as to how Noah would react to putting it in the wild, but he seemed to do ok. He checks the tank about every 10 minutes to see if there is another frog yet. We have one getting close, although mom and dad are not sure he looks all that healthy. Only time will tell, I suppose. And just so we have it out in the open, I am hereby putting my foot down to snakes and turtles. Some people might find them interesting and somehow educational, this mother does not. They will NOT be allowed in my house. I repeat - they will NOT be welcome - even if received as birthday presents. So, now that we have that out there, I can sleep better.

Dr. Noah?

While we were in Michigan, Noah watched an episode of "A Baby Story" with me on TLC. He was fairly interested in the delivery process and paid pretty close attention. This particular delivery required forceps which really grabbed his attention. I tried to explain to him that not all babies need those, but that didn't seem to matter to him. Forceps are what it is now all about. Although, he insists on calling them Q-tips. He will ask about my baby coming out, or we will drive past the hospital and he will say, "When the doctor gets the q-tips and your baby comes out..." As our doctor appointments have become more regular, we talk about her a lot too, so we told him her name is Dr. Shipman and she is the same doctor that delivered him. After my appointments he always asks about Dr. Shipman and the q-tips. This last appointment was at 4:00 in the afternoon so I decided to take him with me. He sat with daddy in the waiting room while I went to use the rest room. I came out and he said in his best QUIET three-year-old voice, "HEY, MOM! WHERE'S YOUR BABY?" This brought quite a chukle from the other waiting patients and we explained that the baby was still in my tummy. We got back in to our exam room and when Dr. Shipman came in, Noah was all business. She was asking him questions about being a big brother and he cut her right off for the most important question, "Where are your q-tips?" She stopped for a second and said, "My what?" So I had to explain the whole story to her. She found it quite amusing. In the 20 minutes we were in there, he asked probably about 5 more times. Each time she tried to explain to him that she really doesn't use those very much but again, he didn't seem to care. They talked a little about the baby coming out and she explained that it wouod be really little and kind of messy. He said, "But, you'll clean it up, right?" She assured him they would and that seemed to pacify him on that subject. She got out the doppler to listen to the heartbeat and Noah got to stand right up next to her and push the power button. She said, "Do you hear that sound? What does it sound like?" Again in his best three-year-old tone he responded, "A FIRE ENGINE!" She laughed right out loud. She said she had heard a lot of responses but that was a first on that one. (Daddy later came to his defense and said there was a sound similar to one they use for fire trucks. I am not sure what they was...) And that about sums up our visit that day. Hopefully, we provided her with some comic relief. She, on the other hand, did not seem to help on our end as we still talk about q-tips. Atleast he can take comfort in the fact that someone will clean the baby and it apparently has toys to play with in mommy's tummy.

T Minus One Month

Well, just one month from yesterday, we will be a party of FIVE. Well, that is if the baby goes by our schedule, that is, and not one of its own choosing. While at the doctor last week, we scheduled an induction for July 24. Both boys were induced (although Benjamin decided he was ready to come that very same day) and we have had relatively pleasant experiences, so we were not concerned about that. We had talked about just letting this one come when it was ready, but I always chicken out in the end. For one thing, I do not want my water breaking anywhere but at the hosptial - what a mess! And secondly, while I am sure other doctors are just as competant, I really want our doctor present when I deliver. Hence the early date... She will be out of the office the following week, so she is letting us go the earliest possible day - just into 38 weeks. There is some hesitantcy that this is too early, but if the doctor is okay with it, we think we should be too. And the 24th just happens to work for a number of other reasons as well. 1. Noah's bday = 10th, Benjamin's = 14th, 10+14=24. 2. My bday = 24th. 3. Dad? Well, he can pretend... 4. July's birthstone is the ruby. Need I say more?
So, the date is on the calendar. I was commenting how different this is than with the first child because after his due date passed, we had to talk about induction and I cried the whole way home because it was actually going to happen - I was going to deliver a baby and I knew exactly what day it was going to be. This time around I have been thinking about almost nothing else since the very beginning. Not that I don't love growing babies - but cuddling them is just so much better!

The Littlest Patient

On Tuesday, June 17, Benjamin had surgery. I will spare the details here - if interested in more info, please ask. We had been told the procedure would be easy on him and by later that day, he would show no signs of having had surgery. We figured the hardest part would be keeping him away from food and drink as he starts talking about eating before he even wakes completely. For some reason, he gave us no problem about it. We had to check him in at 9:00AM. His surgery was at the local Children's Hospital and you could certainly tell that they had worked with children before. They did all of his pre-op work in a little room we referred to as Toy Heaven. I have never seen so many toys and books in such a little area. They even had a bubble blower going which he took great interest in until they put the blood pressure cuff on his leg. He did NOT like that thing. With all the business out of the way, we made it back to our little waiting area where he was assigned his hospital attire. He opted for his red crocs over the hospital booties. Unfortunately, they need to work on their scheduling a little bit. They didn't come to get him for his surgery until 10:45. Even in toy heaven, that was a long time to wait. He did get to practice his driving a lot, though, so that was fun. One of our ministers stopped in and we were able to visit with her while we waited. She asked if we'd like to pray and Benjamin said, "Yeah." He folded his little hands and bowed his little head. It was pretty cute if I do say so myself. When they came to get him, they let us carry him to the end of the hallway, then they wisked us away. I was glad it worked out this way because I had said before hand I thought the worst part would be when they wheeled him away from us screaming on his little bed. So just seeing a nice nurse carry him away was better. During the procedure, he was put under, of course. Could you imagine doing surgery on a toddler when all you could do was continually say, "Sit still, please. Stop kicking, please." Probably would not work so well... His surgery lasted a little over an hour, then we had to wait for him to wake up. The nurse came to get us and she said, "He is not very happy with us." We turned the corner and could hear him screaming bloody murder. Apparently, he did not like waking up in a strange location without daddy and I being there - go figure, right? He didn't really calm down for daddy or me either until we walked out of the hospital. They had given him some apple juice and he sucked that right down. We got home and put him down for a nap. When he woke up, it was as though nothing had happened. He couldn't go in the pool for a week and he has two little surgi-strips that we are still waiting on to fall off, but other than that we'd not know he'd been through anything. For which we are truly thankful. And hopefully, that sums up our children's hospital experiences for good. (Um, did I just jinx us???)

Happy Father's Day

Father's Day was a very casual day at our house this year. Daddy tried to watch Rice in the college world series. (It was not pretty. Please don't ask him about it.) But, his little friend chose not to nap that day and baseball really wasn't an option. Noah wanted to watch cartoons. They had the TV on Noggin and each time a commercial would come on Noah would ask for another cartoon. Daddy would quickly check the baseball score and Noah would say, "No, Daddy! Not thaaaaaat one!" So that was how the afternoon went. Once Benjamin woke up, we went to Grandpa and Grandma Campbell's for dinner. Then daddy finally got to open his presents. This was the first holiday that I let Noah pick out his own present for his daddy. Before you see it, I should explain that for some time now Noah has had certain favorites assigned to each of us. Regardless of what he is talking about - birthday parties, cookies, kittens, balloons - we all get the same theme. Daddy gets pirates, mommy gets princesses, Benjamin gets Wizard of Oz (because he sleeps in heWoO guest room) and Noah gets Toy Story. So when we talked about daddy's gift, his mind was really already made up. He just knew daddy wanted a pirate ship. So we headed to WalMart. Right inside the door they had a display of beach towels with Pirates of the Caribbean and they caught Noah's eye immediately. We walked back to the toy section and found a little pirate ship but he decided in the end that daddy should have the beach towel. And he grabbed some Pirates bubble bath, too, cause he knew daddy would love that. We made our purchase and headed home to meet daddy for lunch. In the middle of eating Noah says, "Daddy, I have a surprise for you in the car! It's a..." I tried interrupting explaining that we didn't tell daddy, he would see it when he opened it. Noah was very confused by this idea. He kept trying to bring it up again and daddy and I would tell him not to share the secret. All went well until that evening when we talked about going to the pool. He could no longer contain himself and he shouted, "Yeah! And you can take your new towel - it has a pirate ship on it...." So the secret was out the bag. When it was finally time for daddy to open his presents, Noah was beside himself. "Hurry, daddy! Let's get out your new towel!" The bubble bath was a surprise, though. He never did mention that one. So, I guess that means secrets are no more in our house. Can't wait to see what happens with daddy's birthday next week! I guess there is always the pirate ship in the toy section.

Slip-slidin' Away

We bought this little slip and slide at WalMart at the end of last summer for $3.00. The sliding part, as well as the elephant, are inflatable. The hose attaches to the back of the elephant head and makes the water squirt out his trunk. Daddy and I didn't feel up to dragging the boys (and all the stuff) to the pool so we thought we would try this. Noah loved it! Without any direction he figured out what was to be done and he'd run and jump and land in the pool down at the bottom. Benjamin liked splashing in the pool but daddy tried pushing him down the slide a couple of times and he wasn't very excited about that. Noah discovered pretty quickly that he could aim the elephant's trunk and spray Benjamin in the head and face. Luckily, that little Benjamin is a good sport. While the chill took his breath away, he didn't get too upset about it. He did call it quits before his brother, though. Noah asks frequently if it is time to get the elephant slide out again so while he probably still prefers the pool, it is good to know that we have a back-up plan that can be used when needed.

Motivation

The time is upon us - get Noah out of diapers BEFORE the baby arrives. It has to be done before he can go to school in the fall and I am pretty certain it will not be at the top of my list of duties in August, so we are slowly moving in that direction. Since school ended last month he has been talking about the 'mean cars' he used to play with. (We finally discovered they are considered mean because they are involved in the crashes and wipe-outs in the movie.) So, we thought that might be the motivation he needed. We went to Target and bought the box set. It was all he could talk about. "I am going to go poop on the potty and I'm gonna get a mean car." He would tell ANYONE who he thought was listening - including a nice man who sat next to us at Chipotle one afternoon and asked Noah how he was doing. At first, he was all about those cars. He would carry them around with him everywhere and set them where he could see them best and talk about them. He would sit on his potty for hours at a time just waiting. I'd figure he was tired of it and ask if he wanted to get a diap so he could move off the potty and he'd say, "No, mom. I am going to sit on the potty and get a mean car." I think his record was 2.5 hours - sitting and just waiting. Unfortunately, in the week that he tried it NOTHING happened. And while he still talks about them on occasion, I think the novelty of the cars has worn off. They are all alone in the front room (under a blanket at the moment, actually) and he is no longer interested in sitting on the potty... I really don't want to have to force any of this, so I hope it all comes together soon.

Uh, oh... Pa-skettios!

Definitely not a smaller version of his big brother, Benjamin has learned the joy of SpaghettiOs. He also has a specific method for eating them. He inserts his finger into the ring then delicately places it in his mouth and sucks it off. If the ring breaks before entering his mouth, it is discarded as 'Damaged Goods'. (Editor's note: He, of course, did not perform on command for the video but it is cute anyway.) True lines are being drawn over this issue. Daddy and Noah feel there could be nothing worse - daddy is offended by their smell, Noah can't do dirty or anything pasta-ish. Mommy, on the other hand, thinks SpaghettiOs and hotdogs is one of the greatest lunch combinations God ever created. And I am happy to report that SO FAR Oxyclean has not disappointed and cleaned garments in one wash. Before: After: Now if Christopher and I could just perfect our drive through kidwash idea, we'd be golden. We are proposing a wash much like a car wash where you send the child through still strapped in the highchair - get it all cleaned at once. And we are totally calling this idea, so don't go working on it on your own...

Thank you, Grandpa & Grandma!

As you know, we have many home projects underway as we anticipate the arrival of baby number three sometime in the next 8 weeks. We've tried working on them as we can but our time has been very broken. Getting all the painting supplies out for the hour I sneak in the afternoon (while Noah is in his room and Benjamin is napping) is hardly worth it. And while I am not sick anymore, I am usually wiped out by 9:00PM. So, Grandpa & Grandma Randolph & Uncle Scott came down to help out. They took the boys for two nights and one day so we could work uninterrupted. And thanks to them, we actually finished a room! While we were busy painting and hanging shades, they were living it up at the farmer. Grandpa had never been and Grandma thought it was a toss up as to who was enjoying himself more - Noah or Grandpa. And as if the farm was not fun enough, the boys also got to go to 'Oklakoma'! Since returning from our vacation, Noah has asked daily if we could just go to a hotel. "We could go to "Oklakoma" and get in our beds and take a nap. (Editor's Note: We stayed at a Comfort Inn in Oklahoma City. Now whenever he sees the sign for the Comfort Inn he says, "Look, mom! Oklakoma!") So when he found out that was where Grandpa & Grandma would be staying (as our guest room is one of the rooms under construction), he just had to go. Christopher and I tried not to feel badly about ourselves as we'd load up the boys at bedtime and send them on their way all waves and smiles. From the looks of it, a good time was had by all. So once again, thanks again, Mom & Dad for coming down, watching the boys, and allowing us to make some progress on the house.

Arbuckle Wilderness

These are a little late but worth sharing. On our way from Oklahoma City to Texas we came across this little wild animal park. There was a walking area but I was most excited about the drive through area. You take your own car on a 7 mile stretch through the park. The pamphlet said the animals come right up to your car to be fed (food provided at the gate). I thought it sounded cool and knew Noah would love to see the animals up close so I talked everyone else in to it. Noah sat in the passenger seat with me so we could get a better look at the animals. And just as they said, the animals came right to the car. In fact, they came right on the car. Noah and I lasted about three animals then we put our window up and just let daddy feed them so we could admire from across the car. It's kind of creepy to have a camel's nose right in your face. And ostriches? No, thank you. A llama tried to eat my hair, for Pete's sake. I think Noah's favorite part was seeing a baby cow drink from its mother's utters - he kept asking to see another. It was pretty exciting though. If you are ever in the area, I recommend the detour.

News Flash

Well, it would seem it has been decided. We are having a girl. How do I know? Noah told me. One of his favorite pastimes is, "What's your name?" So he asked mine. I asked his. I asked daddy's. I asked what his brother's name was. Then I asked what his baby sister's name was and he matter of factly said, "Sophia." I told him that was a nice name then asked what we should use if the baby is a boy. He said, "It's not. It's a girl." So there you have it. Should have asked him months ago...

House for Rent

I bought Noah a bird house at JoAnn's a while back. I knew he would have fun decorating it and told him we could put it in the backyard. "Birdies are going to move in to my house and the mommy birdie is going to lay the eggs. She has babies in her tummy just like you do mommy." So I finally got it out for him. Turns out painting it was not as exciting as I thought it would be. I had to strongly encourage him to do more than one side. We did find some cowboy stamps in mom's painting supplies and that was very exciting. On our way to Target yesterday, we saw Mr. & Mrs. Mallard wandering through the front yard. Noah was sure they were looking for a place to make their nest and lay their eggs. He was also sure that his bird house would be the perfect place for them. I think I finally convinced him that the holes were maybe too little for the ducks (because he simply could not believe that they would actually rather build their nest on the ground). This morning we saw a pair of doves in the backyard and he just knew what they were looking for. Daddy climbed the tree and hung the house this afternoon. It is in a perfect location where we can lay on our backs in the shade and watch the birdies inside the house. Keep your fingers crossed that someone (besides bumblebees) moves in.

The Plug

We never thought of Benjamin as much of a pacifier kid. Noah was for sure. He had that thing in his mouth 25 hours a day for the first year of his life. Shortly after his first birthday his daddy put him to bed and the pacifiers were downstairs. He did not feel like going to get them, so he didn't. Noah never mentioned the pacifiers again. We put them all away and that was the end of that. Benjamin has really only used his at bedtime. I think we have mentioned before that he uses 5-6 at a time. One in his mouth and the rest tightly grasped in his fingers. We brought this on ourselves because when he was just a tiny baby and moving out of swaddling, he would swing his arms and grab at whatever he could find. 9 times out of 10 it was his pacifier. He would pull it out of his mouth and then cry and cry because someone had taken his plug. So, we started putting one in his hand when we put him to bed. It stopped the problem. Well, that problem. We have been a little too lax on taking his pacifiers away for good and now we have a real problem on our hands. When we got back from our vacation, we decided it was time. We gave him one last night (and happy wake up in the morning) with all of them and then were going to take them all away. Silly us thought it would go just as easily as Noah's transition did. Uh, no. While he did fine for about a day (two naps and one nighttime) he then realized that something was missing. He would get himself to sleep okay but if he woke up in the middle of a sleep, he had no way to get himself back to sleep, so he would cry. A lot. We tried a couple of nights to just let him cry it out - moving him back in to the guest room so he wouldn't bother Noah. But three nights of no sleep for mom and dad weakened us and we gave in. It actually took him two days to get back in to a good sleeping habit WITH his pacifiers. But now we are right back where we started. I fear if we don't get them away from him soon, he will not have had a big enough break before the new baby arrives with his/her own set of pacifiers and there will be much confusion and screaming. We now we have to just suck it up and take a week and do it BUT.... we just love our sleep soooo much....

So Sad

Benjamin is working on perfecting his weeping. Tears are almost instantaneous. Big ones. And his scream is getting louder and louder. Unfortunately, he gets laughed at a lot. Not because we don't think his complaints are worthwhile but rather because he is just so doggone cute. See for yourself...

Sharing

As Benjamin gets older, Noah gets better at sharing. I don't want to go so far as to say he is good at it yet, but he is definitely better. He is most likely to finish playing with something then proclaim that Benjamin wants to play with it and force it in to his hands. And just recently, he has started claiming certain toys as his and his alone. Unfortunately, we don't know what those are until someone else tries to play with it. One such toy is the blue shovel in the backyard. He can be playing with any other number of things with the shovel still in the toy box. As soon as Benjamin goes to get it out, he claims it as his own and wrestles poor Benjamin to the ground to get it away from him. Most often he will take it far away and go back to playing with what he was before - never taking his eye off of it to assure Benjamin is not playing with it. Luckily, Benjamin is pretty quick to move on - most times. Benjamin is starting to become a little more aggressive and has learned to scream quite loudly when his toy of choice is compromised. It's pretty humorous to watch, really. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Vacation - Part II

When Christopher and I flew to Florida in March we saw a number of single women traveling alone with small children. I got a bee in my bonnet that "I could do that..." And this seemed the perfect opportunity to prove to myself (and everyone else) that that was true. At first I thought about just taking Benjamin but I knew Noah would never forgive me for going on an airplane AND going to Michigan and not taking him. So I decided to take them both. At 6.5 months pregnant. You should have seen the looks I got from people when I told them what I was doing. I tried not to think about it too much as I had already committed to the tickets and had to convince Christopher that I could do it. I just kept telling myself that my boys have traveled enough to know the routine and that they were well-behaved enough to mind me for at least a few hours. Turns out I was right. Once again they were just perfect and our flights came off without a hitch. The only problem was that to get from Dallas to Flint we had to stop in Milwaukee. Changing planes was no problem but the 30 minute flight was. It was too short to get out much for the boys plus we didn't get any cookies. BOO! On the way home it a problem again because Benjamin slept on the 30 minute flight and then was awake for the 1.5 hour flight - mostly wrestling with mom. But we survived and had a wonderful visit to Michigan.

We started at my cousin's baby shower. I had picked up a sinus infection in Texas and was not feeling all that well so I didn't get to visit much with family, but Benjamin did. He sat with Grandpa and chatted it up with his great-grandparents. And he ate a lot of food. That is his favorite thing to do, you know. The rest of the week was spent relaxing in Jackson so the boys could perfect their bar stool climbing and piano and organ playing. We got to play with the neighbor grandkids a bit which was big fun. And we also got to have our favorite local meals - White's chicken and Jaxon Pizza Factory. We went to the zoo in Lansing one afternoon but it didn't have any animals. If you ever see any zoo-type animals without a home, please send them to Potter's Park. They have lots of nice facilities - they just need someone to live in them. The boys didn't seem to mind. They were happy to get out explore outside. We ended our visit with a nice little ice cream shop in Hanover (or was it Horton??). It was a little chilly but the staff was very friendly and they just give the 'scream away. I couldn't believe it. If you are ever in the area, I recommend it highly.

Grandma was a big help caring for the boys so I could relax during the day. We had hoped to work on potty training Noah but he would have nothing to do with that. I haven't seen him cry or throw a fit like that in some time. So, unfortunately, that did not work out. Now Grandma has a whole kitchen full of chocolate cakes and a few bags of pull-ups with no big kid to use them. I'd like to say we could still use them when she comes here but, hopefully, he will be all done with that before she heads this way in August... Benjamin got to spend a lot of time with "Ba-pa" which made him very happy. Even after being home for a week, he still walks around the house saying, "Uh-oh, Ba-pa..." Unfortunately, there is no Ba-pa to help him with his problems. It didn't take Noah long to figure out he better buddy up to Grandpa too because Benjamin was getting to do a lot more fun things outside than mom and Grandma who just came straight inside whenever we got home. Dandelions, sticks, and rocks are outside, you know. And that was where the real fun was.

Hopefully Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Scott have rested up from our time there. We won't be going back any time soon as I am now on 'town arrest' until the baby comes. Luckily we had a good couple of trips as our 'last'.

Home Sweet Home

Well, we have returned at last. We had a wonderful extended vacation and are happy to be home. Our trip started on the 24th of April and we made it as far as Oklahoma City (338 miles). We did not arrive at our destination until 11:00PM which turned out to be pretty normal. Surprisingly it was not much of an issue as you might expect with two little ones in tow. Once it got dark they would fall asleep. They did have an uncanny ability to wake up about 15 minutes from our destination to let us know that they shoulod be out of the car and fast asleep in their own beds. Needless to say, we got pretty good at unloading the car in record time.

And now, a quick recap of the first half of our trip... Night 2 was in San Antonio (467 miles). We remembered the Alamo, had lunch on the Riverwalk (where the boys spent the entire meal feeding chips to the ducks) and took in one of the maky fiestas happening around town. Night 3 was in Waco (183 miles), as we were headed back towards Dallas to attend Denton Bible Church on Sunday morning (125 miles). (Pastor Tommy Nelson has been a favorite of ours since the Song of Solomon study at Young Adults eons ago. We were very exctied to be able to fit him in to our trip.) Sunday afternoon we were able to visit with our friends the Martins - former Kansas Citians who moved to Dallas about 18 months ago (32 miles). The boys were VERY excited to spend an afternoon out of the car and in a house full of toys. Noah got to play lots of chase with Luke (30 months) and Benjamin got to play with Hunter and Heather (10 months). Nights 4 & 5 were spent in Dallas -the main reason for the trip (35 miles). Christopher and I participated in a worship service for the United Methodist general conference. *Editor's note: If ever in the Dallas area, do NOT stay the the airport Ramada and certainly don't let them con you in to paying $100/nt. (Ours was only $50, thank you very much). When the internet hotel websites have ranked the hotel at 72 out of 77 in the area, don't assume that just means it was the 72nd one they had checked out. Just run. Nights 6 & 7 were spent in Houston (259 miles). We had some yummy fajitas at Pappasito's and had a nice walking tour of the Rice campus. On our way back towards Dallas, we spent night * in Corsicana after spending a nice afternoon visiting with my former accounting professor, Dr. Shaub and his family in College Station (226 miles). Once again the boys were happy to be out of the car in a house with 'kid things' to do. And I was very happy to finally get to introduce Christopher to Dr. Shaub. Day 9 had us up nice and early and headed to the Dallas airport (75 miles) so the boys and I could fly on to our second destination - Michigan.

Other than spending entirely too much time in the car and getting caught in some serious rainstorms, we had a nice tour de Tejas. The boys rode like absolute angels - we could not have asked for better. Noah loved the idea of going to a hotel every night and neither had any trouble getting used to a new room or bed each night. (Maybe getting them in 3 hours passed bedtime each night helped with that!?!?) Daddy and Noah only got to swim twice but he seemed ok with that.

Oh, and if you were counting, that was 1640 miles. Plus another 1230 to Michigan OR 528 back to good ol' Overland Park. Fa-shew...

Noah VS the Lorikeets

Last Tuesday daddy took the day off and we went to the zoo. It was a nice sunny day, although, a bit on the breezy side. Ok, it was windy. It was still a little chilly for some of the animals so we didn't get to see some of our favorites like the elephants and the giraffes. We did try something new this time, though. They have a lorikeet habitat that you can walk through. At certain times during the day they give you a little dixie cup of 'Jungle Juice' and you can feed the birds. The birds like this activity a lot as they are very social, friendly birds. Unfortunately, they might be a little TOO friendly for some little three-year-olds. He did really well getting in there and listening to the explanation of how to feed the birds. Daddy held him and it was fun for about 30 seconds. At that point, the birds started landing on his head and it was no longer fun. Not even a little bit. He flailed and waved and threw his feeding cup. (It all happened so fast I missed getting a picture of that.) Then he stood like this plastered to his dad's leg and screaming at the top of his lungs until Christopher was able to get him out. We figured he was traumatized for life but as we were leaving for the day we walked past the birds again and he told us he wanted to go in and feed them. Luckily there were no more feeding times that day so we didn't have to test him to see if he was telling the truth. He still brings it up on occasion. Sometimes he says, "I didn't like that." Other times he says, "Remember when those birds sat on my head? That was so funny. Silly birds." So, I guess only time will tell. My guess is we will just admire other people feeding them for quite some time.