Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Lions and Tigers and Hippo's?

This past Saturday we all went to the National Zoo with a guy Mike works with, Steve, and his wife. We met for breakfast at Bob Evans and then drove to the Metro station to go to the zoo. Cameryn and Luke LOVED riding on the metro. Cameryn looked out the window and told us every time we went under a bridge or into a tunnel and Luke just bounced around pretty much everywhere. He did keep trying to put his mouth on things (I prevented it thankfully) which resulted in me finally putting him back into the stroller cause that's just gross. He still had fun from there though.

We got off the Metro at the stop that the Metro guy had recommended we use when we bought our tickets so we wouldn't have to push the stroller uphill which was really nice but we forgot to ask him which way to go after we got off the train. We asked some girl who didn't sound too sure but we followed her advice anyways. She of course ended up being wrong. Mike asked someone else a few blocks later and she said it was the other direction and on the other side of the street. So we got some good exercise that day.

It was the perfect day to go to the Zoo. There was a nice breeze and it wasn't too hot so all the animals were out and pretty active. Except unfortunately for the Pandas. They were sleeping in the sun so I didn't get any good pictures of them. I got one picture of one of them sleeping and you can see his face but that's it (it's the first picture in the video). Plus there were two levels to go on and stupidly we went on the bottom one and no one but me wanted to go back around to the top level so that we could actually see them, oh well.

We went onto the enclosure that has all the Elephants, Hippo's and used to have Giraffes. The gave the Giraffes to another zoo because they are in the middle of building up this new area they are calling an Elephant Walk. It supposed to be done in 2011 so hopefully they'll get the giraffes back after that. They had this huge Hippo in there. The picture that I took doesn't do him justice but I only had one hand to use since I was holding Luke who was trying to get down and climb into the enclosure. He loved the animals and kept making silly noises. It was like he was trying to talk to them. Anyways, this Hippo was HUGE- Mike kept saying he had to be at least 5,000 pounds and I don't doubt it.

Cameryn loved looking at the Elephants too. Right near where they were there were all these monkeys loose in the trees. Of course they are allowed to be loose but the zoo people keep tabs on them. They were so teeny and cute. There were a lot more of them in the Small Mammals building. That was a really fun building to be in. I was watching the Meerkats and they had three of them all standing up kinda standing guard or something and the rest of them would climb around and get into this little pile (below). It was so cute. The others were standing guard so they could cuddle. When someone walked up to quickly the guards would give a signal or whatever and the little pile of Meerkats would disperse and run away to hide only to come back out again and pile together again. So cute!!

They have these cables (or something like it) that the Orangutans (I can't say that word without thinking of Monty Python, he he) climb on. I've never been able to see them climbing on them but Saturday there were three of them up there together totally showing off for the crowd. I got a video of it (below) but my hand was again a little shaky since I was only using one hand to do it so sorry if you get dizzy when you watch it.

For some reason they had the make and female lions separated which was neat for us though because they were "talking" back and forth. It was really cool to see. The tigers were also really active. There were two of them the were playing and chasing each other around. Stupidly I just sat there watching instead of getting it on the camera that was sitting there in my hand. I could even tell when it was about to happen. Anyone who has had a cat can tell when one is about to "get" the other one.

Over all it was a really nice day and the kids had so much fun at the zoo watching all the animals. Luke fell asleep in the stroller while we were walking out and stayed asleep while on the Metro. It was a busy but really wonderful day.


Friday, October 12, 2007

It smells like bug poop

Me, Cameryn and Luke were outside when Cameryn wrinkled up her little nose and said that it smelled like bug poop. I just laughed and said to myself, what a perfect title for a blog entry. It was just so cute and funny and very random. I mean, I didn't smell anything. Children say the funniest things. Does anyone know what bug poop smells like?

I just thought I would post some pictures I took recently and a video.

Here is Cameryn modeling her Princess shoes. Isn't she an adorable little model? I don't know why she thought it a better idea to put the shoes on before the underwear and pants but it's cute anyways. You can just barely see her teeny tiny bum.

Here is Luke "riding" the dog (notice the nice straight eyes) and one of him walking. He doesn't really have a favorite blanket but lately he likes to walk with something draped over his shoulders.

Cameryn was fixing her own hair in this picture. She clipped in two barrettes and it looked so stylishly messy so I took a picture.


I came into Cameryn's room to see if she was dressed yet and found her "nursing" her monkey, Bobo. She said she couldn't get dressed yet because he was hungry. What a good little mommy. She even switched sides.

Warning: Video contains a cute little naked bottom.



That screaming in the background is Cameryn in time out in her room for hitting and biting. She is usually a very sweet girl with occasional tantrums but lately she has been so horrible. She hits me and Luke and has started biting again. The only thing I can do that seems to work slightly is to put her in her room with one of those child safe things on the door knob so she can't keep coming out. It sounds mean but she won't listen to me until she has cried herself out and I don't want to constantly be spanking her bottom or something like that. Anyways, I just wanted to explain the screaming in the background of the video of Luke. Sorry.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Lazy times and Nightmares

I have had so much to say recently but have not really felt like blogging. I haven't even been taking that many pictures lately. I feel so lazy and bored so much of the time. I wish I could sit and read all day long sometimes. I have still been doing things around the house but it takes all my will power to make myself do them; like dishes and dusting, yuk. I am not unhappy or anything. I guess I'm just sick of my house and the monotonous duties required of having any kind of abode. I just need to keep making myself do things and hopefully I will get out of this slump.

On a happier note:

Luke is walking like crazy now. He still crawls a lot like when he wants to get somewhere really fast but more and more he has been standing up and walking. He is so funny when he walks. When he first started trying to walk, he would try to start going before he was even fully standing or he would try to go way too fast. It took him a while to realize that he couldn't walk as fast as he could crawl yet. It was just so adorable to see. He gets so excited when he does anything and he has to most adorable little toothy grin. He wrinkles up his little nose and squeals with delight. I'm going to try to get a video of him walking cause he is just oh so cute.

He is so adorable. It's hard not to pick him up and cuddle him all day long. Not that he would mind. That boy is a very cuddly little guy. He crawls/walks up to me and will sit on my lap for 10, even 20 minutes sometimes. He even likes to lay his head on my chest and just have me hold him. I'm going to enjoy all that while I can too. Though Cameryn still occasionally likes me to hold her so that's nice to know that I still have a few more years of cuddling. I know it can't last forever though.

Cameryn's little imagination is definitely not little anymore. She is always pretending something and playing with her Princess Barbie's and other toys, just making up stuff. It is so wonderful to see. The only bad part is she has so many nightmares and is scared to sleep in her bed now. Mike and I have been at our wits end to try and come up with a solution for this but so far we have only found temporary things that work kind of. Most nights she falls asleep in the rocking chair in her room and later we go and move her into her bed before we go to bed. Usually when I go in to mover her, she has her blanket over her head too. Poor girl is all sweaty under that thing too but she likes to do it. She comes into our room at least once on most nights now and I let her fall asleep with us and then move her back to her bed. I just don't want her to get accustomed to sleeping with us. Sometimes she wants the dog in her room while she falls asleep and we let her out later as well.

We just don't know what to do anymore. It seems that as soon as she turned 3, her imagination just kicked into high gear and now she is scared of her room at night. She is terrified of snakes and other reptiles for whatever reason. When we would try to put her to bed in her bed, she wouldn't lay her head on her pillow. I asked her why and she got all scared and said that a snake would say "Hello". She would lay her head half way down her bed and curl up into a little ball. She also has some dream about my sister, Jessica, pushing a button and a snake coming out of it. Still even after talking and stories and songs, she still gets out of bed right after we have left and closed the door. She lays in the hallway covered in her blanket and waits for us to come back. I have had to resort to telling her that if she gets out of her room again that I will have to spank her bottom. That usually works but not always, so I end up having to spank her which I don't want to do but I have to so she will learn.

I've thought about moving Luke's crib in the room with her and they can sleep together. It's not like they have to have separate rooms so why not. I was actually planning on doing that when they got a little older anyways. Mike is not sure about the idea but I think it might actually work. If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them, we really don't know what else to do.

Here are a few recent pictures of my kids. Mike bought Cameryn a Princess tea set and she has been having lots of tea parties with her Barbies. The other picture is Luke and Landon riding together on Luke's battery powered 4-wheeler. It was so cute. Luke was zooming (as much as he could in our crowded small house) around the living room and kitchen and Landon just climbed on behind him. I tried to get a better picture but the dumb dog was just too hyper and kept getting in the way so that's the best I could do.

Monday, October 01, 2007

I hate Mosquitoes

Mike took the kids into the backyard yesterday to play while he washed the dog. Well, I guess the mosquitoes are still everywhere back there because this is what Luke looks like this morning. (scroll down for pictures) He has three bites on his face, two on his ear and two on each leg. The ones on his right leg are HUGE!! His ear is so swollen that it sticks out from his head.

The poor little guy is loved by those horrible bugs just as much as I am. They never bother Mike or Cameryn, but Luke and I are one tasty dinner for them.

I have been pretty good about putting bug spray on him and I before taking the kids outside and our backyard is so small, I rarely go there anyways. Mike thought is was cool enough to not put the bug spray on but after about five minutes, he looked over and saw one on him. He killed it and then noticed all the other bites. Needless to say, he took the kids right back inside.

Poor Luke though was up scratching at the bites on his leg at about 5:00 this morning. I was able to get him back to sleep right before 6:30 (I was still too tired to get up for good and so was Luke).



I hate those stupid horrible pointless bugs!!!!!