A Day at the Zoo

I have been wanting to take Wyatt to the Zoo for a few months now.  The thing about Wyatt is that he isn't the 'easiest' child to corral into a stroller so until recently I really thought it would be way too challenging to take him.  It just so happened that Ben's (new) company had a family day planned at the zoo last Saturday so we decided to take the opportunity and go!  (His first day was last Monday, but they still invited us to the Zoo outing)

I somehow managed to snap a cute picture of Ben and Wyatt right at the entrance.  Trouble is, I had no memory card in my camera.  Uggh.  Fortunately, the gift shop sold them so I was able to buy one.  Never mind the 360% markup they put on the piddly little 2GB memory card!  This was his first trip to the Zoo, so markup be damned I had to document the day! (And document I did.  I took 87 pictures at the low-price of 28 cents/each .... Is the GT in me coming out yet?)

We started out at the Elephants. 

Then moved through Africa. (Can you tell we have a difficult time getting him to pose/smile for a picture?)

Then to the tigers

And to the Endangered Umbebe (omg.  who knew the zoo had so many umbrellas?)

My favorite part of the zoo has always been the House of Reptiles.  I HATE snakes, but I love to look at them.  Especially the skeery ones. There were many a' Crocodile Hunter impersonations done in the House of Reptiles!  Wyatt seemed to like them too.  Hopefully I was successful in getting my 'snakes are scary and dangerous' message through to him. 

We managed to get him to (kinda) look at the camera here by saying "look!  an umbrella!".

We still had time to kill before lunch, so we headed to the kid area to ride the train and carousel.   We met up with some friends and their daughter (they were actually Ben's connection to interview for this new position) to ride.

Here we are again with that whole no looking at the camera!

We did get one family picture ... too bad W wasn't looking :(

We attempted to get this picture several times.  Do you know how hard it is to get 2 adults and 2 kids to smile and look at the same camera at the same time?  I'm pretty sure you have a better chance of winning the lottery!

We rode the Carousel next, which Wyatt liked, but he did talk about the train the whole time.  It was Ben's turn to be in pictures so he called dibs on riding with Wyatt.  I (stupidly) thought you had to be actually sitting on an animal to ride (as opposed to standing) so I looked pretty silly sitting on a Tiger's back shooting pictures of W the whole time.  Live and learn, right?

After the carousel, it was time for lunch, so we ate quickly while doing our best to avoid a honey-badger meltdown.  It was naptime, and we still had to see the Giant Pandas before leaving.

So we did.  Wyatt LOVED them!  

We stopped by the Elephants one more time before leaving. Now, let me tell you one more story before sharing this sweet picture.  Ben had just lectured me on the fact that not all my pictures need to be 'Annie Liebowitz photography' and that I was simply not going to capture a perfectly posed, smiling picture.  Whatev.  This photo may not be professional, but I think its pretty sweet ....

BAM!  In your face, Ben!

The last thing I had to do on the way out is stop by the gift shop.  I figured I needed to buy Wyatt something to commemorate his first Zoo trip.  Since I felt like his favorite animal was the Pandas (he would get so pissed if they walked away where he couldn't see them), I decided to buy him one. After the memory card debacle, I was totally prepared to take out a second mortgage for this stupid stuffed animal but to my surprise it was only $11!

Here is the tired Panda with his new stuffed Panda ...

He was so sleepy that I don't think we escaped the parking lot before we saw this ...

Easter Part Deux

I guess I'm late to posting this.  Totally forgot that I hadn't done so until I was going to do a post on our Saturday at the Zoo.   So stay tuned for that post soon! 

Here is the rest of Easter ...

The Easter Bunny came to visit, of course!  Also, note to EB for next year: DO NOT buy so much candy!

hands-down his favorite toys were the matchbox cars that his Meme gave him! (like my Halloween PJ's?)

Easter Egg Breakfast -- this is all over blogs and Pinterest and I've done this a few times for W with varying degrees of success.  Ellie however, LOVED, it!

Look who doesn't want to cooperate?

Wyatt is generally too busy to sit and pose for photos.

There is that sweet smile!!!

We worked hard for this picture! 

Sweet Baby!

Nope.  He isn't going to look at the camera.

Wyatt, Gavin, Ellie, Liam, Garrett, Caris, Wurth

Ready to hunt!  (Why do I always look like I'm trying to herd a cat in these sort of pictures?)

What is in my egg???!!!

MORE CANDY!  JUST WHAT I NEED!

Easter Weekend

I'm about to totally overload this post with pictures of our weekend, but I just can't decide which ones to cut out so sorry in advance!  Our weekend started on Friday because W's sitter was off that day.  Mom and Dad were at the Masters for the week, so that meant W had to come to work with me for the morning.  I think between the donut and the random 'toys' sitting around my office I was able to get about an hours worth of work done before we had to leave!  Actually, pretty good.

We ran to Costco, then to Panera for lunch (poor decision) and then home for his nap, etc.  Our local jumpy place was having an Easter Egg Hunt and the Easter Bunny visit, so we met one of our neighbors and her friends up there for a few hours.

Wyatt was enamored by one of their new bouncy houses.

He thinks these palm trees are "umbebes" (umbrella -- his latest obsession).

He spent about 10 minutes just laying under the umbebe and looking up at it!  Hilarious.

We ended up hanging back from the Egg Hunt because there were some WILD kids there and we didn't want the babies to get trampled.  The kids didn't even know the difference and had a great time playing.  And the best part about wearing him out in the afternoon is that he ends up eating a great dinner and going to sleep very easily at bedtime!

Saturday morning we had a neighborhood hunt.  We had all turned in our eggs a few days prior, so by the time we arrived at the square everything was already hidden.  Of course Wyatt ran straight at the eggs excitedly and Ben ended up having to corral him on his shoulders.

Ready to start!

In action!

He likes to open each egg as he finds it.  If we're not careful he will just shove the candy into his mouth -- wrapper or not!

Playing on the slide after all the eggs were hunted. 

We did our best to get an Easter family photo.  Its so hard to get W to look at the camera and  you can just forget to get him looking AND smiling.

He tried to sneak a few pieces of chocolate in while we weren't looking.  I don't know how much he actually ate, but he managed to get it all over his clothes and face!

I fed Wyatt a quick lunch and put him in the car to head up to the lake.  Ben was staying home for the Master's so it was just me and my little road warrior. 

We relaxed around the lake house for the rest of Saturday afternoon.  The kids enjoyed playing together and making each other laugh ...

We also spent some time down on the dock.

I've decided to end this post here ... I'll continue in a later post.  I don't want yall readers (all 3 of you!) to talk behind my back about how I post too many pictures ....

Scenes From My Life

Recently, when people ask me how Wyatt is doing one of my standard responses is "he's two".  I feel like he's always been strong-willed, but man.  He is just TWO.  Not a bad boy at all ... just mischievous and definitely wants things his way.

When I pick him up in the afternoon from his sitter, he starts talking about umbrellas (umbebes ... his latest obsession).  He points out every umbrella on our way home, and then as soon as we get there he wants to go outside and see his umbebe.  So, we usually do. 

Once he starts getting bored, he'll climb into the his sand/water table like so ....

Then he'll come and sit with me at the table for a few minutes ....

Notice all the "bom-boos" on his legs?  He's all boy.

Then, eventually he wants to go on a walk in the neighborhood.   I allow this, as long as he stays on the sidewalk (and I'm with him).  Recently, he has been walking toward what we call the "square" which is just a large grassy area in the neighborhood where kids go to play and run.  Well, over near the square the other day he discovered that someone had an inflatable baby pool in their yard.  People were hanging out near the pool  (although nobody was actually in it) so we went over there to say hello.  W was curious about the water and I let him stick his hands in it.  Before I knew it, I looked up and he was in the pool and soaked from head to toe!

My neighbors looked at me shocked that I wasn't upset by this. They don't have little boys. Although I wasn't upset by the fact that he was sopping wet, I knew it was going to be a challenge to get him home.  I stripped him down to his diaper and carried my screaming redneck baby in one arm and his wet clothes and shoes in the other.  To say he was displeased would be an understatement.

The very next day when we got home he wanted to go play outside.  Of course we do, and he is happy to see his umbebe and outside toys for about 3 minutes.  Then he takes off toward the sidewalk, so we head out on a little walk.  I don't think much of the fact that he is headed to the square, as he does that all the time.  But, when we get to the square and he doesn't stop to play I get a little concerned.  He went STRAIGHT to our neighbor's house with the baby pool!  They weren't outside so I couldn't exactly let him stop and play in their pool but a 2-year old DOES. NOT. UNDERSTAND. this!  So for a second day in a row, I have to carry a screaming baby back to my house ....

I tried reasoning with him.  I tried bribing him.  I tried offering him M&M's.  Then Skittles.  Nothing was working.  Finally, he did calm down at the thought of a juice box. 

Oh.  and also my iPhone?  It is now blinged out with umbebes.

I'm totally rocking this mom-gig aren't I??