The San Diego Zoo

Our first day in San Diego, we spent hours at the zoo.  I love the San Diego Zoo and it was Emily’s first experience at an American Zoo.  From what we saw in Europe, the zoo’s in the US are typically better than the zoo’s in Europe, and the San Diego Zoo is probably one of the better ones in the US.

First we rode a tram all over the zoo.  The San Diego Zoo is pretty much one big hill, so it was nice to be able to sit and watch the animals go by.  The day we were there it was HOT.  Not Phoenix hot, but still really hot and humid.  Not ideal, but oh well.

After the tram ride, we checked out the reptile building.  I loved the Gila Monsters.  One of them was pretty photogenic and I had fun taking pictures of him.

Next we went to the kids petting zoo area, which left a little to be desired.  They had some goats to pet, but the rest of the area was kind of vacant.

After lunch, we went and checked out the monkey’s, which Ben loved.  I call him “Monkey” more often than not because he is a little monkey, so he had fun watching them swing around.  I was surprised they were so active in that heat!

 

 

I guess I’m at the stage in life where I take more pictures of my kids than the animals at the zoo.

We went and checked out the koala bear exhibit while we were there.  I love looking at the koala’s.  I would love to hold one some day.

Abbie saw this character while we were on the bus and she REALLY wanted to go say hi to him.  She was so cute though because she was running to see him until she got up close and then she wanted to hold someone’s hand as she got close to him.  Then she was fine to take a picture.  Ben wanted NOTHING to do with him though.  He stood a good 20 feet away and was more than happy to scream goodbye to him from that distance.

Another one of my favorites are the polar bears.  This big guy was putting on a show.  I could have sat there and looked at him for a long time.

We did the Skyline before we left the zoo.  We had to go in 2 separate buckets since they only allowed 4 people in one bucket.  We’re not used to being a family of 5 yet!

It was a fun and tiring day at the zoo.  We even ran in to friends of ours that were stationed in Italy with us who now live in Vegas.  So random, but it was fun to see them for a few minutes!!

Ben at 21 months

I feel like Ben is changing daily lately.  He’s definitely getting a mind of his own, which is fun, but then not so fun at times too.  His vocabulary is probably up around 200 words now.  He’s still way behind where Abbie was at this age, but he’s rapidly improving.  He’ll say things like “daddy go bye-bye”, “open/close it”, “more cereal please”, etc.  Sometimes he says things and we had no clue he could say them – like elephant.  We saw an elephant statue and a Thai restaurant today and he was pointing at it saying “eh-fant”.

Another thing new for him this month is that he says your name to get your attention.  “Daddy.  Daddy!  PAIN!!!!”  I was sitting on the couch the other day reading a magazine and he was sitting on the floor near me.  He said “Mommy!” a few times and when I looked up he clapped his hands and said “YAY!!” for himself.  He wants you to do it with him, which is ADORABLE!

Ben can jump easily now, with both feet off the ground.  He can feed himself with a spoon fairly well and he gets mad if everyone else at the table has eating utensils and he doesn’t and he’ll say “poon peas”.  He’s learning how to drink from a cup and he will ask for water, milk or sometimes juice.  He knows when he poops and will go bring you a diaper so you can change him.  (Maybe I should potty train him soon?)  When we’re leaving the house, he almost always goes and finds my sandals for me and brings them to me without me asking him to.  He starting to boss the dogs around, which is funny and he’s starting to fight back when Abbie starts bugging him.

He’s VERY attached to his lovey and paci and while he was sick this month, I let him have them downstairs since he was sleeping on the couch where I could keep an eye on him.  So then he wanted to have the things with him ALL the time, and it was a bit rough breaking him of that.  Now he knows that paci and lovey stay in his bed so he’ll go throw them in there before he leaves his room and say bye to both of them.  I don’t really want him to get older.

I have Ben in swimming lessons right now.  He goes twice a week for 30 mins each time for 4 weeks.  This week is his last week and he still SCREAMS during the lessons the whole time.  I think part of it is that he’s cold.  Little dude doesn’t have much body fat on him since he’s built just like his daddy.  And although he’s crying the whole time, he is learning.  He will reach under the water by himself now to get the rings on the bottom.  He can kick his feet, which he didn’t do when he started.  And if she drops him in the water by the edge of the pool, he’ll bob up and knows to turn around and grab on to the wall and then monkey himself over to the stairs to get out by himself.  He didn’t do any of that when we started.  The other day I was watching him and he monkey over to the stairs by himself and I smiled at him.  He was crying, but he still clapped for himself when he saw me smile at him.  It was so cute!  And he’ll cry but he’ll still reach for Ms Kasie (the teacher) and then give her high five’s and fist bumps, even through his tears.

I just can’t get enough of this little guy sometimes!  <3<3

Abbie’s first day of Pre-K

Abbie is only 4 years old, but she looks like she’s at least 6 in these pictures, and most of the time, I guess.  She’s growing up way too fast!

(She posed like that all by herself… Little diva.)  Abbie was more than excited to go to her first day of preschool.  She has always thrived in group settings.  She loves being around other kids and being social and helping, and now when we go to school to drop her off, there are kids running up to her all the time saying hi, and she’s yelling across the parking lot to say hi to her friends and wave to them.  She never had any reservations about walking to class by herself, and in fact, she helped a few kids that did have a few tears the first few days, by taking them by the hand and leading them to their classrooms.  In some ways, she is very independent and I hope she never loses that.

I was the one that had issues watching her walk to her classroom by herself the first day.  Considering how excited I was for her to go back to school to get her out of my hair for a bit, I was pretty surprised when I got a little bit choked up as she walked away.  She was so confident and excited and she didn’t even look back, which is great and what I want, but it’s just a reminder of how quickly she’s growing up.

She’s been going to the Montessori school for a month now, and I’m still on the fence about it.  I can see Abbie being kinder to Ben and she’s gaining even more independence, which is great, but I want her to really be working on her writing and recognizing letters and numbers and being well on her way to reading.  When I ask her what she does at school, she said she got a lesson from the teacher about colors.  ….  She’s known her colors for 2 years now.  I wish she’d be getting lessons on more advanced topics.  They also said that we’re not allowed to send juice packs to school in the kids lunches, which kind of annoys me.  I can send little things of milk with the straws, but not the juice packs?  I guess if I pay $650/month and have to pack her lunch for her to go there, I should be able to send whatever I want in her lunch.  And some of the parents there are really uppity, which annoys me.  I’m not sure I really fit in with them, but that’s a small matter if she’s getting a decent education.  We’ll see how this next month goes.

And one picture of Benj.  =)

Emily’s first chocolate chip cookie experience.

My mom taught Emily how to make chocolate chip cookies while she was visiting.  I grew up eating my moms cookies and I make them now myself sometimes, although they are bad for my waistline for sure…  They’re addicting and really good.  Here is Emily’s first experience with a chocolate chip cookie!

She liked them.  A lot.  Who doesn’t though?  (Actually I do know a few people who don’t.. <Ahem> – Rachel and Donna.  Wierdos. =D )  She also liked my parents Golden Retriever, Maddie, who Abbie calls “the old grey-faced dog”.  She went around saying “She’s such a good old grey-faced dog.” the entire time Maddie was here.  haha!  I want a Golden so bad!  Who wants to get me one for my birthday??  (Dad and Mom???)