Daddy's First Trip to the Zoo

We have had such a fun day today, and it's only 1:30 in the afternoon.  The boys woke up around 7:00 this morning and David immediately suggested Pancake Pantry for breakfast.  Since everyone seemed rested and happy, we decided to go for it.  So what if it was raining--the radar looked pretty promising. So we frantically got dressed and headed to the Pantry.  We just knew the line would be forever long, but when we got there it was probably the shortest we'd ever seen it on a Saturday morning.  Now remember that this was 8:00 and it had just been pouring down rain.  We enjoyed a yummy breakfast of pancakes and then we were off to the zoo to enjoy the cloudy morning.

This was David's first trip to the zoo.  Usually the boys and I go during the week with our friends, but we'd been wanting to bring Daddy along, and it turned out great.  Campbell loved showing Daddy all his favorite animals, and it was nice to have an extra set of hands to help me out.  

Here are some pictures of our zoo fun.

Me and Campbell at Pancake Pantry.

Andrew eating crackers and making a huge mess.

Daddy and the boys looking at the ducks

family photo at the alligators--there were a bunch at the glass which never happens

Mommy and the boys in the Unseen World house

Daddy and Campbell peeking up through the meerkat habitat 

lingering question...

First of all, I can't believe that I left a poop story on here for so long.  My apologies.  Today I'm thinking about something that happened yesterday that is still lingering in my mind.  The boys and I went to Toys R Us to buy a birthday present and a big boy car seat for Andrew.  The later was a must.  My parents are almost at the point of refusing to stuff Andrew into his tiny little infant seat anymore, so it had to be done.  The boys were actually very good in the store.  Campbell asked to go play with a few things and always came right back when I asked him to.  Ok, so sometimes I had to ask him more than once but, come on, it's Toys R Us!  As we were leaving, Campbell spotted the candy at the front of the store.  He asked if he could have some and I remembered that my mom had given he and Russ each a dollar the other night and he had his in his pocket.  (It had been changed to each new pair of shorts since he receive the dollar!)  So I told him he could spend his dollar on some candy.  

He immediately spotted the Pez dispensers and was sold on those.  They had all the characters from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and he was laboring over the decision of which one to buy.  Finally, he decided.  "I want that one," he said, pointing to the Daisy Duck Pez dispenser.  And in some sort of reflex reaction I said very quickly, "No, Campbell, those are for girls.  How about choosing Donald?"  He was fine with that and has LOVED his Donald Duck Pez.  He has not had a second thought about it, but me, on the other hand, I've been thinking about it a lot.

Should I have let him have the Daisy one if that's what he really wanted?  Clearly he didn't care that much because he put up no resistance to buying the Donald one instead.  And it's funny because usually I'm pretty OK with stuff like that.  For instance, his favorite show is Dora.  I know she's a girl, but he loves that show, especially Boots the monkey.  So I don't worry when he watches it.  But then when it came time to buy big boy underwear, he asked if they had Dora and I had to explain to him that they didn't make Dora underwear, only Dora panties for girls.  

Anyway, I guess I'm just wondering what everyone else thinks about this stuff.  Everyone has a different take on it, and I don't really think there is a right or wrong answer to the question.  I'm just looking for some other opinions here.

A funny thing happened...

...on the way to pick up Campbell this afternoon.  So, Andrew and I were on our way to pick up Campbell from Summer Play Days (it's like preschool in the summer--love it!!).  I heard him doing a job in the car on the way there, but since we'd been late the day before, I opted not to change him before we went in to get Campbell.  You see, at SPD you have to walk a pretty long way to get to the classrooms because the church is doing lots of construction.  Usually I put Andrew in the stroller because he's pretty heavy, but like I said, I was in a hurry.  As we were standing there talking to Campbell's teacher about why he was in his extra clothes (he sort of went all over his clothes during a potty break--I didn't ask for details) I could smell Andrew's stench.  What a great surprise for me when we get back to the car, I was thinking.  Oh, I just had no idea!  

So when we got back to the car, I laid Andrew down on the seat to change him and noticed he'd had a blow out--a pretty bad one.  Wait a minute, I thought, I've been carrying him for the past 5 minutes.  And then I looked down at my own shirt--yep, that's right, it was on me too!  UGH!   Campbell looked at me and said, "Mommy, did Andrew poo poo on you?"  "Yes, he did,"  I said.  "I didn't poo poo on you, Mommy," said Campbell.  "And I appreciate that, Campbell," I replied.  Well, it takes a few minutes, and every last wipe I had, to clean Andrew up.  And, lucky for me, I was sporting the cool layered look and was able to take off my shirt and just wear my tank top home.  So here we were: me in my white tank top and athletic shorts, Campbell in his $5 outfit from Walmart that I bought just for extra clothes, and Andrew with just his shirt on.  Good thing we didn't have an accident or something on the way home.  And the funny thing is, today isn't really an out-of-the-ordinary day.  As Phil Vaser would say it's "Just Another Day in Paradise."  

I'll leave you with a few fun pictures.  The first is Andrew in his big boy chair.  He loves to sit at the table just like everyone else now.  But he's still a really messy eater.  And the next is Campbell and Taylor playing doctor.  So cute.  We'll allow this for now, but I'm not sure how long Taylor's daddy will let Campbell get away with playing that game.  Hope you all have a good day.  Thanks for checking in on us.

facebook...oh my

So, I am now on facebook, and I have to say it is extremely addictive.  I just want to keep searching for long lost friends--or at least people I vaguely remember.  How fun!  But too bad for me, Andrew is beckoning...

What goes around...

...comes around.  This morning I was folding laundry, and as soon as I laid the warm clothes on the couch to start folding, Campbell immediately jumped in them.  "No," I said, "don't jump in the laundry.  You'll make it all wrinkled!"  And as soon as I said it, somewhere in the back on my mind, I heard my mom's voice saying that same thing.  I remembered how my sister and I used to love to lay on the warm laundry on the couch--which is where Mom, and consequently I, always fold laundry.  It made me, just for a second, want to lay in that warm laundry with Campbell and be and enjoy that sweet smell and warm that is strangely comforting to me.   But if I did, I knew it would make the clothes wrinkled.  And that would bring the worst consequence of all--ironing!  Yikes.  And so, my hatred of ironing out-weighed my nostalgic feelings and I had to be the mom and ask Campbell not to lay on the clothes.  But it was a nice moment just the same.

Fun on the Fourth

Now that I'm done with the song thing, it's just not much fun thinking up post titles.  Maybe I'll bring it back soon.  But for now, this was all I could come up with.  Does anyone else hate making up titles?  It's like when you send an e-mail and don't know what to put in the subject line.  It's too much pressure.  I think we should just skip titles all together.  Anyone with me?

Ok, so now on to the good stuff: the boys.  First of all, I'd like to say a happy late half birthday to my sweet baby Andrew!  He turned 6 months old on July 3.  He has brought such joy to our family.  David and I were talking last night about how both our boys just complete our family.  When we are all 4 together, something just feels right.  God is so good to us!  

Anyway, as for Andrew's stats, he weighed in at 18 pounds and was 26 or 27 inches long (can't remember right now).  But the big surprise was his percentiles.  Everyone is always telling me what a big boy he is, and I am usually quick to agree.  I mean, look at those cheeks, they've got to weigh a few pounds each, right?  But he is only in the 60th percentile.  That's almost average.  So, I guess he's not as big as I thought he was.  Maybe all his friends are just really small?!?  Sorry I don't have any new picture of him.  The camera is in David's car.

As for the fun on the fourth, we had a great Fourth of July weekend.  We went over to our friends Zach and Mandy Evans' house.  We had a great time playing with all the other kids on Carter and Seth's super cool  play set in the back yard.  And, I have to brag on Andrew for a minute.  He was tired when we got there, so I put him in Seth's bed, just to see if he would fall asleep, and HE DID!  Now, some of you may be wondering why I am so excited about this.  You see, Campbell would NEVER have done that.  He has lots of trouble sleeping anywhere but his own bed (except for at school--he always takes a good nap at school--go figure!).    I mean, he even has trouble sleeping at my mom's house sometimes.  So the mere fact that Andrew fell asleep in someone else's bed is huge to me--not to mention the fact that he slept 30 minutes!  Way to go little Roo (that's our nickname for him).  Here are some pictures from the Whitfield's blog that we stole.