Man Cub's First Zoo Visit

Yesterday we finally made it to the zoo with our sweet boy.  Jacob had been saying for weeks he wanted to make sure we visited to the zoo while he was here, and I'm glad he did.  It was nearly 90 today, but Man Cub did great!  *On a side note, why do women where long BLACK yoga pants to the zoo on a 90 degree day?  On what planet is that every a not-so-warm option?  I'm all for yoga pants, but ladies, you looked beyond miserable today.  Seriously?*

We began our visit with a stop by the meerkats.  They always seem so much like our pups.  I love watching each of them in their various roles.

Elephant baths occur each day at 10:00, and it's an event we seldom miss during our visits.  We made it to the barn in time to watch Shanti and Baby Duncan get a scrub.  Duncan is 8 months old now; we hadn't seen him since he was 2 weeks old.  Gracious!  He's a cheeky little dude, grabbing snacks from the keeper's bucket without doing a behavior first.  Ha.  Sounds about right, doesn't it moms? Duncan also likes to swim-smart elephant!

We saw the Andean Sun Bears as we headed off to visit the Africa area.  The new gorilla exhibit is looking great, and I can't wait for it to open in a few months.  We haven't had a gorilla at the zoo since I was a little girl!

We visited the chimps, rhinos, and kudu before making our way to the giraffes (my other favorite along with the elephants!).

We splurged and fed the giraffes today.  It's one of my favorite things to do, but I can't always justify spending $5 to be in a giraffe's face.  At the Brevard Zoo in Melbourne, FL, they encourage scratching the giraffes' heads.  In Houston, we can't touch them at all, so a bit of the magic is lost, but it's still fascinating to be right there with them.

Our last stop was to the sea lions before heading home.  I'm already thinking that another zoo trip is in order on Isaac's next Friday off.  :)

Weekend Wrap Up

We had a fabulous weekend with Isaac's brother and cousin in town!

The boys always bake up a storm of goodies while they are here, and this trip has been no different!  They made their annual batch of pillow cookies:

And they also made brownies baked around two oreos with peanut butter.  Um, yum!

 

We also visited the Blue Bell Factory on Friday before heading to Chuy's for dinner.  Man Cub decided it was awesome to sleep on Uncle Jacob all through dinner.  I was grateful to eat with both hands!  ;)

Saturday afternoon we had lunch at my parents and watched the Aggie game. Man Cub watched with Dede and Layla watched with me.  

The guys indulged me so I could get a photo of Man Cub with both of his uncles (Isaac's brother and my brother).

Then we went to the beach after church on Sunday.  It was a busy weekend, but Man Cub handled it all so well, and we really did have so much fun with all the family!

Man Cub Goes to the Beach!

Each autumn when Jason and Jacob visit, we head to Galveston for some beach bummin'.  We weren't going to let the addition of sweet Man Cub change those plans!  The little guy made his first trip today to the beach.  We waited until 5:00 to get there so we wouldn't have to worry about the sun rays being too much for the little guy.  Still, he was stylin' in his Surfer Baby shades!

 

Bailey never left our side this trip.  He loves to swim, but he was too keen on what his brother was doing to care about swimming today.  

Man Cub loves bath time, so I wasn't worried about him liking the ocean.  The sand, well, I wasn't so sure how that would go over with him.  He didn't seem to mind it though, and he kept curling his toes into the soft, wet sand as the waves receded.  

The boys played monkey in the middle with Aggie Belle and the frisbee and flew kites too.  It was a perfect day for beach playing!

First family of five beach photo!

 

We can't wait for many, many more beach days in our future!

Blue Bell Tour

The 4th annual Man Weekend is upon us!  Jason and Jacob, Isaac's cousin and brother, are in town for their days full of rompous fun.   In all their years of visits, we've never made it to the Bell Bell factory in Brenham for them to tour.  I can't believe this because they buy out Kroger's Blue Bell stock every visit!

Man Cub slept all the way to Brenham, and all the way back home.  We stopped at Must Be Heaven in downtown Brenham for lunch.  So, so good!  

I wish cameras were allowed on the tour.  It's so fun to see how our favorite ice cream is made.  All the goodies for the ice cream are made in house except for the marshmallows (Kraft) and the Butterfinger pieces.  Also, the ice cream is ready for shipment 6 hours after production.  It's nice and fresh when it makes it to my freezer!  After the tour, every gets a huge scoop of the flavor of their choice.  We played 'pass the ice cream cup' so we all got a bit of 4 flavors.  :)

The best part was running into a family I used to babysit when they still lived on our side of town.  The Boozers went to UBC with us, and I babysat them for about 7 years.  Caroline had just posted on Facebook on Thursday an old picture of us:

She mentioned how I was her favorite babysitter and wished she lived closer enough to babysit Man Cub.  I wish she did too!  Caroline didn't get to babysit Man Cub, but she sure got to cuddle him yesterday while she, her brothers, her mom, and I caught up.  So special!

 

 

Of course we had to take the obligatory tourist photos with the Blue Bell truck.  I need to dig out the photos of us as kids at the factory. 

 

   

Have you ever had Blue Bell?  What's your favorite flavor?

Fall Favorites

I found a new-to-me link up called The Circle, and thought I'd join up in conjunction with some Friday lovin'!

Fall Favorites

1. Favorite fall fashion/clothing item?  I live in Houston-the fact that I can still wear flip flops makes me happy!  I love a great scarf, but those come out maybe by  Christmas. :)When it does finally cool off, oh, around November, my cowboy boots will be out in full force.

2. Favorite fall drink? On those *somewhat* cooler days, I love that I can justify a chocolate chai once again.  :)

3. What's something on your fall bucket list? Carving a pumpkin to put Man Cub in for pictures! This year the pups will have a baby brother with them!

4. Favorite fall recipe? Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

5. Halloween candy or Pumpkin Spice Latte? Candy-Dove.  No coffee for this girl!

6. Favorite fall scent? Pumpkin Spice

7. Favorite fall holiday? Thanksgiving

8. What is fall (weather) like where you live? Warm, humid, and sometimes rainy.  It's just an extension of summer, really.  :)  Last Fall, we went to the Grand Canyon, and in 2012, we went to Vail to get a taste of 'real' Fall.

Man Cub: 2 Months

 Sweet One,

We fall more and more in love with you each day.  Your coos, sighs, giggles, and smiles are some of the most beautiful things we've ever seen.  We stand in awe of your Maker each day as our prayers for you continue to be answered abundantly.  While we don't wish these tiny days away, we can't wait for you to understand who Jesus is! 

Sleeping:

Oh, our darling sleeper!  You love sleep, and how I pray you always do.  I should rephrase that-you love sleep once you fall asleep.  Unfortunately you take after Mommy and think that if you allow yourself to drift off to Dreamland, you'll miss out on a party.  Usually though, with a bit of bouncing, you'll fall asleep fairly quickly.  One of us will just lie you on your belly, pat your back, and off to sleep you go after a few minutes.  Naps are usually spent in your crib in your room or in the swing.  You're becoming great about having 1.5-2.5 hour long naps two-three times a day.  Yay!  At night, you go to bed about 10:00, sleep til 4, and then sleep again from 4:30-7:30 or 8:00.  Life is good!

Eating:

You still love your milk!  Nursing is such a treat for us both, and I'm beyond grateful.  It's our special time together, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.  You transition easily to a bottle of pumped milk when needed, so Mommy has been able to return to bells and Chamber Singers, plus go to a few appointments without you in tow.  That's going to make life so easy on Daddy when I go back to work in 3 1/2 weeks!

Tricks/Activities/Accomplishments:

You adore standing up!  You think it's the neatest thing, and love to be held up on your feet.  Your thighs are all muscle!  Your play mat is a great sanity saver when Mommy needs to do something for a few minutes.  Your mastery of sleep is a great accomplishment as well.  You suck your fingers, which is awesome; if you lose your paci, you just pop your little fist in your mouth.  You giggle and make solid eye contact now as well.  You have gone to the nursery at church during our youth class for three weeks now, and you've charmed all your teachers!

 Likes:

Laying in your boppy, being sung to, hearing music at church, being at church, showing us how strong your legs on by standing on our laps, being read to, rides in the car (unless you're hungry), the swing, the sling, being outside on walks with the dogs, when Aggie Belle kisses you, when Bailey snuggles up next to you when you eat, being held, bath time, when Daddy flies you around like Super Man, when Daddy does anything with you, eating, your elephant and giraffe Wubbanub Pacis

Dislikes:

Dirty diapers, being hungry, laying on your back for more than a few minutes unless you;re on your play mat, going to sleep

Two Month Stats:

Weight: 10 pounds, 8.5 ounces

Length:  22.5 inches (this is the 'same' as last month.  The doc measured you three times this week.  She thinks you were mis-measured last month-oops!).

Eating: nursing (every 3 hours during the day and 5-6 hours at night)

Bedtime: when we go to bed, so sometime between 9:30 and 10:30

Awake: sometime between 7:30-8:30

Naps: in between nursing times, but how long you sleep depends on what we're doing.

Diapers: newborn, but later this week I'm moving you on up to 1s.  They're still a bit big, but I can't justify buying more newborns when we have a closet full of 1s and they mostly will fit you.  Thank you, thank you for letting me have two full months of your little booty in such tiny diapers.  :)

Clothes: 0-3 months.  Some newborns still fit, but I was tired of figuring out which those were, so I switched you last week.