Happy Fourth of July!

I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful holiday yesterday.   

Road Trip! (Part Two)

Our final day in Omaha started out with a trip to Panera for breakfast and then a quick shopping trip at Target to get Aaron’s Father’s Day gift.  His work finished up around 10:30, so we picked him up and then made our way to the zoo.  Most of you probably know, but the College World Series takes place in Omaha. Well, apparently it takes place in mid-June and the stadium is right next to the zoo and uses the same entrance. So we sat in a long line of cars waiting to get to the zoo.  We finally made it to the second zoo parking lot (the first was full) and they closed the lot behind the car in front of us. We asked what to do and they told us to drive back around (into the line we were just in for 30 minutes) and that as people left the zoo, they would allow a car back into the lot. Well, we could see about 20 open spots in the lot (which they were saving for security for the baseball games) and convinced the guy to let us in.  So, while I felt bad for everyone behind us, I was so happy that we were able to get a parking spot! Plus it was really close to the zoo entrance and they let us buy tickets from them, so we didn’t have to wait in line at the zoo entrance. 

 

Little miss was so excited to go see the zoo!

But, the first animal we saw was the free roaming peacocks.  We’ve seen them a few times, but they’ve been in cages and haven’t ever opened their feathers.  This time though there were some little birds invading his space, so he was fanning them. I was excited to show Jenna because I thought she’d think they were neat. Nope, she did not like it. She kept covering her eyes.  Then the bird squawked and Jenna about had a panic attack! Poor baby!!! Granted, if you’ve heard a peacock before, you know it makes an awful sound, so I don’t blame her too much.

The look of terror in my baby’s eyes :(

Covering her eyes:

We left the peacocks pretty quickly!!!

 

These birds on the other side of a cage seemed to go over a bit better.

Better yet, the bears were a big hit!

We saw some strange things, even for a zoo. This ape was sleeping with a box over his head. I guess he wanted some privacy!

While we were inside one of the buildings we noticed a zookeeper bring out a penguin, so we went over to her. She told us a bit about the penguin program at the zoo and let us pet the penguin.  Jenna liked to look at her, but did not want to pet her, but Aaron and I pet one of her wings.

Jenna started getting restless in the stroller and since we knew we would be stopping for lunch soon, we let her out to walk.  I generally don’t mind letting her walk by herself, but in crowded areas, I like to use her backpack with a ‘leash’. She loves it and the freedom it provides, so it works great.

We enjoyed a nice lunch under a canopy and with a nice view of the giraffes. I had a hard time getting a picture of Jenna and the giraffes, but there was a giraffe statue behind us and I was able to get a picture with it in the background.

Shortly after lunch (which was quite late) Jenna fell asleep. She slept through the rest of our tour of the zoo.

 

We left the zoo and immediately got on the road home.  It was a fun few days!!!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all you dads. I hope you have a great day.

I am very lucky to be married to a man who is a wonderful father. I love to see him playing with Jenna. He is so good with her and she loves her daddy so much! Today he bought her a set of golf clubs (plastic ones) and she is so excited to golf with her dad!

Like Jenna, I'm quite a lucky girl to have such a great dad. Even though he worked long hours and had a long commute when we were growing up, I can't remember a single time when we wanted to play and he wouldn't. He coached our sports teams, he even put up with a few teams of tween girls, talk about patience! He would spend hours practicing any sports we wanted. One of the most favorite things my dad ever taught me (well maybe it was also inherited from his genes, lol!) was a love of math. I can remember him helping me with math homework when I was in junior high and loving when he would teach me something that we hadn't learned yet in school.  He always encouraged me in anything I showed interest in and that support truly helped me have the confidence I needed during college and in my job when I had classes or meetings full of all men and just me. So thank you Dad for being such an awesome dad and for everything you've always done for Brad and I. Happy Father's Day!!

Road Trip! (Part One)

This week Aaron went to Omaha for a business trip.  He left on Tuesday and was set to come home Friday afternoon. After making sure it was ok with him, Jenna and I decided to join him after I got off work on Wednesday. On the ride there, I told Jenna that we were going to Omaha and she said, “Elmo!” It was so cute, but I felt bad that she wasn’t going to get to see Elmo!

 

Cheesing it up as we were leaving:

We were able to leave by 1:00. I’d been stocking up on new (to us) books and toys for the trip and made sure I packed lots of snacks.  She napped from our house to the northern edge of the city and then played with her new toys and books for a while. We had to stop once (in a cornfield in Iowa no less) for a diaper change, but the drive was otherwise pretty uneventful.  We got there just as Aaron was getting done with work, so we met him in the lobby, then went to the room to relax for a few minutes before meeting his co-workers for dinner.  There were 4 others, two that work in his office and two from other sites.  Jenna loved meeting them and sat on a couple of their laps, but she was too wound up from being in the car, so we walked the hotel during most of our wait for dinner (it took about an hour for them to get our food). Although it was a long wait, the food was excellent. Jenna and I split a chicken quesadilla and a bowl of fruit.

By the time we were finished with dinner, Jenna was getting tired, so we retired to our room.  We let her play for a while because it was only 8 and we didn’t want to go to bed yet. By 8:45 she was getting fussy, so we tried to get her to go to sleep while we watched TV. No such luck.  Finally we decided to move her pack and play into the bathroom and she went right to sleep.

Thursday morning we got up when Aaron went to work and then headed to Lincoln to visit my childhood friend Audrey and her boyfriend Jon.  As I got Jenna loaded into the car, she kept asking about Elmo. Maybe she really was expecting to see him! In Lincoln, we had lunch at a bar and grill that had the BEST cheeseburgers ever. Yum! I don’t get to see Audrey very often anymore, so it was great to catch-up, even if we just got to visit over lunch. After lunch we drove back to Omaha and rested for a bit in the hotel before heading down to the pool. As we were getting ready, I realized I forgot the swimming diapers, so we ran over to Wal-mart.  When we got back, the hotel was swarming with little league baseball teams. Guess what that meant, the pool, which was about 8’x10’ was SWARMING with them.  I kid you not, there were whitecaps on the pool from so much activity.  Luckily, Jenna was deterred from the pool by a walk.  There were some shops near the hotel that I wanted to check out, so we walked there.  Meanwhile Aaron got off work, so we headed back to the room and then went to dinner at a bar and grill. This time I had lettuce wraps and they were so good.  After dinner it was back to the hotel and bedtime for Jenna. We watched the basketball game. We were rooting for the Celtics, well, maybe we were just rooting against the Lakers. 

Thursday morning:

Well, this post seems pretty long, so I’m going to break it up into two. Check back later for an update on the rest of our trip!

Hi!

The binky fairy visited our house last week. Jenna was only using it at night and for naps, but I decided (very suddenly btw) that it needed to go before she got much older. We kept reminding her that the pacifier was gone because she is a big girl. She got weepy a few times, but after the first day or two, she seemed excited about the idea of being a big girl and has done quite well. The last couple days she hasn't asked for or about the binky at all. She has started asking for a book every time she has a nap or goes to bed, but a reading habit sounds good to me!

The pictures are (1) of her after we had pictures taken (I'll post them another day as they are on my work computer...which is at the office this weekend). The photo shoot was terrible, but she was in a good mood when we got outside, I used my phone to snap a shot and (2) of her play kitchen which I bought at a 2nd hand store for $6.99. Today when I was shopping I saw that it costs $125. I am so proud of my good deal!

18 month appointment

Jenna's 18 month appointment was yesterday morning. She was excited to go because she was going to say, 'hi doc' when we saw her doctor. It was cute. But, as they took us from the waiting room she heard a little boy start to cry and she got nervous and started to whimper. I put her on my lap when we got to the room and she felt better. The nurse had me undress Jenna and then measured and weighed her. She weighs 30lbs 6oz and is 35 inches tall with a head circumference of 19.25 inches. The height and weight are still really high for her age, but the doctor says that they are still perfectly proportional, so as long as she's continuing to eat healthy she's just fine. Her head is at the 95th% for her age.  The doctor looked her over, commented about how inquisitive and smart she is and then answered some questions. She cried a little bit during the beginning of the doctor's exam, but he gave her a small plastic green duck and she then she wasn't as nervous. She got one shot at the end of the exam and screamed and cried like crazy, but I reminded her that she had a new toy waiting in the car since she was so brave and she calmed right down. It didn't hurt that she had a new owie to tell people about.

When we got home we babysat Lexi, who just turned 1. She was a sweetie and it went really well. She went down for a nap after lunch and Kim and Jocie stopped by to play as Kim had the day off. Jenna loves Jocie so much. Jocie is full of energy and has the sweetest personality, so it is a lot of fun watching them together. Jocie's just enough older that she has lots of new tricks that Jenna hasn't even thought of. For example, Jocie stood on a 2" thick book and jumped off it (it was a big enough book that it was safe). Jenna can't actually jump yet, but she tried and now today, everytime she steps on something she has to 'jump' off it and she says 'Jocie'. So cute! Lexi woke up around the time Jocie had to go, then I gave the girls a snack and put Jenna down for a nap and I played with Lexi. I don't think she knew what to do as she has an older brother and sister and goes to daycare. She had no one to steal her toys or to boss her around. She spent about 30 minutes cruising all over the room and making silly faces at me. Then she got tired again, so I put her back down for another nap. I got her up 30 mins later when her dad was due to pick her up. I brought her downstairs and she fell asleep in my arms. It was so nice. Jenna's just not one to sleep when other people are around, so it has probably been since she was 2 or 3 months old since I got to have a baby sleep in my arms.

A Trip to the Zoo

We had a great day at the zoo! As we pulled up, I started regretting our decision to come before school was out for summer. There were no less than 10 school buses lined up and oodles and oodles of parents and kids waiting to get into the zoo.  We got in line (the school kids and parents were not in line, so we didn't have a long wait) and then entered the zoo. The first few exhibits were a bit crowded, but as we moved farther from the entrance the crowds died down.

We started in the Australian section. This exhibit was new the last time I went to the zoo (in the mid-90s) and Aaron had never seen it. It is section off from the rest of the zoo by a train station. Oddly enough it looked a lot like a train station that we visited in the Australian rainforest, so I'd say they did a good job in making it look Australian. We walked through the gates and into an aviary, then on the other side of the aviary there were a few exhibits of larger birds and a few other Australian (and New Guinean) animals, including some free roaming kangaroos. The 'roos stuck to a field and didn't cross into areas where visitors went, but they could if they wanted to. Unfortunately, unlike in Australia, we didn't get to pet the kangaroos, but we did have fun looking at them and remembering the fun time we had petting them in Australia. Hopefully someday we'll be able to take Jenna to Australia so she can pet them, too!

After Australia, we headed to Africa and got sidetracked by the elephants. I don't think Jenna realized how big elephants are, so it was cute to see her face when she first saw one.

Along the way we got to pet a sheep (which Aaron kept calling a goat - drove me almost as crazy as the lady at the petting zoo that kept calling the shetland pony a donkey!) and some small deer.