What an awesome day today was! Troy headed down to Belle Isle for the Orion Music Festival for the day, so I tried to think of something fun to do with the boys. We haven't been to the zoo yet this year, so off to the zoo we went. Although we've been to the zoo plenty of times last year, there was definitely something magical to today's trip. I think part of it was the fact that being a year older, the boys understood the idea of actually looking at/for animals and they have had more exposure to seeing animals in books over the past year, so when I said "look at the lion", they actually looked at the lion. The other part that added to the awesomeness of the trip was the fact that it was just me and the boys. Don't get me wrong, I
love going to the zoo with other people - but I'm not going to lie - I'm such a talker that a lot of the time I am with other people, I'm so engrossed with catching up with the other person/people I'm with that I'm not really taking in everything around me. Being able to just sit and stare at the giraffes and see the reaction that the boys had to seeing the huge animals was just amazing! Today's favorite animals = lion, zebras, giraffes, and bears.
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| ROAR!!! (said Ellis) |
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| They loved being able to get in and out of the stroller (and I love having a side-by-side stroller for just this reason) and checking out the zebras |
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| I don't know what Logan liked more, climbing up and down the little ledge or actually looking at the bear. |
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| Hard to see, but those are gorillas up on the rock |
After a few hours, we headed back home, but not after going back to look at the giraffes and zebras for a second time. When I picked Ellis up to see the giraffes a bit better, I wish I could have taken his picture the moment he actually saw it. He was in complete awe, it was so cute! I think the fact that the zebras got pretty close and that they could see them very well through the fence, made Logan just squeal! Today's zoo trip was definitely the most enjoyable part of my day!
As far as the rest of the week, here are some other highlights:
- Yesterday we had a fun night at the Chandler's for this months Beer Friday party. Derek is in a Beer of the Month Club, and he gets 4 different beers from various breweries around the US to taste test every month. Awesome, right? These are definitely beers we've never heard of, but some were actually really good. Each of us got to sample 8 beers (4 from this month and 4 from last month) and we rated them 1-5 (5 being the best). Last night's winner - Rusty Chain!
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| Can you believe Troy actually joined in and gave some beers a rating higher than 0?! |
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| Cutest little taste testing glasses ever |
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| Okay, so we shouldn't have waited until 9pm to get a picture of all 3 of them in these cute chairs. Of course Logan and Ellis loved sitting in them earlier, but the minute we get all 3 of them together right before we left, all hell broke loose. I'll cut Ellis some slack - it was 1 hour past his bedtime! |
- The only other "big" news this week is bittersweet. I know it's inevitable, but my boys are growing up way too fast and it seems to hit me in spurts. This week, we've had a lot of "big boy" moments. Ever since I cut a hole (which apparently was bigger than it should have been for the first cut -- oops!), Ellis has rejected using his pacifier, but he still likes to hold it when he goes to bed. I didn't expect that he was going to stop using it cold turkey, but hey, if that's what happened, then I'm good with it. He did have issues taking a nap a few days after cutting it, but since then, we haven't had any major issues - until this week. On Monday, my mom couldn't figure out why Ellis was screaming so much during nap time. He wanted to get out of his crib, he didn't want his pacifier (and at one point she even gave him a non-cut pacifier to see if he would take it and he wouldn't!), so after an hour of screaming, she just got him up. Tuesday, he tried the same thing - scream scream scream. So she got him out of his crib and laid down with him on the twin bed that is the bedroom also. Guess what?!?! He fell right to sleep! So, for the rest of the week, he slept in the big boy bed and did just fine!
- On Wednesday, as much as we HATE it, we gave in and cut their hair. No styled cut for them, we just buzzed it off again. Hopefully they will grow out of the whole screaming at the clippers thing and we can give them a cutter cut, but for now, we're lucky we even have it look half-way decent. We started with Logan because of the two of them, he is the more calm one. We thought we'd have an easier time with him. Boy were we wrong and boy is he strong! I think all of us were just sweating when we were done because of the flailing and fighting he did. 30 minutes done, Troy looked at me and asked if we should wait until Thursday to cut Ellis' hair and as much as I didn't really want to deal with it, I just wanted to get it over with. Don't get me wrong - Ellis wasn't silent, but his crying was so much more tolerable and he just let Troy hold him while I cut instead of fighting us. How refreshing! =)
- Thursday was the boy's last day of their Parent/Tot class and home visit through the Speech Therapy Program, for the school year. Logan adjusted well and quickly over the 6 weeks but Ellis was still a little iffy when it came to stopping his free play to do any of the structured activities. Well, guess what happened on the last day of class? Ellis complied to everything they did. During circle time, he came right over and sat right down without making a peep. Troy couldn't believe it. He actually looked at the teacher, she looked at him, they looked back at Ellis sitting down and just went with it. During the home visit, there was more of the same. He sat down and did the activities they usually attempt to do before he acts up too much, and completed them all. Of course this is something we've always wished for, but now that it is happening, I am just so proud of my little Ellis. I have noticed quite a bit of change in him in general, lately. I'm not sure if it is related or not, but after the initial adjustment after not using his pacifier, he has been a lot more mellow lately. Sure, he has his moments, but he has a lot less time-outs and breakdowns, and that makes this mama proud!
- Logan has been engrossed in learning his numbers lately. We've been doing some structured activities with the boys lately and they've done really well with their colors. Now that they are older, I've been pulling out some of the busy bags that were made last year and using them. They do really well with a popsicle color matching game. I also found some number and alphabet magnets recently and since Logan has been excited about numbers (counting the numbers in our address on the porch), I decided to pull those out. I use them on a cookie sheet and it is so cute to hear him count "1, 2, .....9, 10!" Not sure how/why he knows 9 and 10 and he isn't as consistent with those as he is 1 and 2, but its pretty darn cute. He just picks up a book and starts counting something in or on the book. We hear "1, 2" over and over on any given day and I love it! The other day he actually kissed the magnets and I couldn't believe it. Of course I didn't have my camera with me at the time, but come on - what kid kisses number magnets? Apparently the kid of a math teacher! =)
So there you go - there's our week (or at least the good parts of the week - I don't even have the time/energy to inform you all of some crazy drama at work this week!). I'm way excited that we are almost in the single digits of days left of school. I know, I'm totally jealous of all the teachers already out of school, but we don't get out until June 21st! I can not wait to spend the summer with the boys and see what else they surprise me with over the summer. Within the next week or so, I'm going to put together a binder of things for the summer - a little summer bucket list, activities to try, calendar of things we have scheduled, etc. CAN'T WAIT!!!!
For now, its time for me to enjoy a bowl of ice cream before bed - because I can!
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