Ten on Tuesday: Oklahoma recap

1. We are back from our Oklahoma vacation. Sadly, I was sicker than a dog most of the time and am still feeling quite crummy. I started having a sore throat last Tuesday night at work and then it just got progressively worse. I ended up missing some of the bridal fun Friday, but for the most part I powered through and had a good time. It was good to have Aunts, Uncles, and Grandma help watch Zane while I rested.

2. I still have a terrible cough and head congestion so I am not working tonight, in hopes of an actual good nights sleep making some difference. Tomorrow is Zach's birthday and a year since Dad died so I am going to need to be well rested to get through the day.

3. This farm visit consisted of a lot of firsts for Mr. Zane, starting with his first hair 'cut'. It really was more of a tiny trim to get his bangs out of his face, but it still counts. I don't have any pictures of this event because I was holding him still. Mom just trimmed it a little and he looks much more pulled together/like a little boy.

4. Zane also had his first swing ride on mom's blue baby swing. He loved it, of course. Sunday the weather cooled down, making it gorgeous outside, perfect for a swing ride.

5. He also had his first encounter with a cat/kittens. His kitten encounters will have to stay at Grandma's because his mother hates cats. He seemed to enjoy "loving on" them (a.k.a abusing them). He picked them up, patted them, and possibly squeezed them just a little too tight. It was shades of Able squeezing the baby bunny when he was a little boy. All the cats survived Zane's loving, unlike the bunny.

6. Zane had a blast playing with his cousins at the farm as well. He loves playing with other kids, though Maggie and him struggle being nice to each other, but they seem to have a good time. Brendan and Zane played chase with Zane a lot and they all had a great time on the farm, complete with this adorable wagon ride with Grandma.

7. This farm trip Zane was big enough to ride Peanut Butter the horse, and he loved it. He thought he could get on Peanut Butter himself, which led to a few falls, but all and all he loved his pony rides. He even gave Peanut Butter pats when he was done.

8. Zane did pretty good in the car ride there and back. When he was awake one of us needed to sit back with him and keep him entertained, but for the most part it wasn't that bad. Zach had to sit with him most of the time because I get terribly car sick. He did sleep quite a bit too, which helped.

9. The real reason for this trip was to celebrate Anna and Jarrett's wedding. Thursday I went to Norman for her personal shower/girls night, which was a blast. Friday I missed some pre-wedding fun, since I was sick, but slept a lot so I was more pulled together for the big day. I plan on doing a separate post about the wedding, but needless to say Anna mad a gorgeous bride. Here I am with Anna at her personal shower. It was great to be with my BFF for her big day.

10. As a wrap up we had a blast in Oklahoma per usual. I love being with my family and miss them so much when I'm gone. I wish we could live closer to them all so I could see them more often and our kids could grow up together.

Ten on Tuesday

1. I would like to wish a Happy Wedding week to Miss Anna Tooman, soon to be Mrs. Gentry. I cannot wait to get to OK and start to take part in the fun. I am beyond happy that you have found your soul mate. You are going to love marriage!

2. The packing for the road trip is almost done and I have a large bag designated purely for things to entertain Zane. The bag includes everything from his little hair brush to books. I finally bought the Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes toy Sunday. I have been meaning to buy it for Zane, who loves music, but just now got around to it. It is perfect for parents and baby. It isn't very loud, it only plays normal classical music, with a big button that is easy for him to push. He played with it on the way home from Toys R Us and I could barely hear it win driving, perfect for a road trip.

3. Zane officially is waving bye bye consistently and at the appropriate time. He has been working towards this slowly for a while, but now he does it all the time. It is super cute, as you can imagine.

4. I think I have created a monster with the minature spatula. It has been over a week since we made cookies, but now every time that I am cooking, anything, he finds his little spatula in the drawer and gives it to me, begging for a taste, of what he is sure is cookie dough. This weekend he got so upset that I wasn't giving him a taste of the onions I was chopping that I finally gave him a little taste of peanut butter, which seemed to suffice.

5. Zane is back to having sleeping problems, again. I think it is due to the little bit of a cold he has mixed with all his molars wanting to come in at the same time, but he is beyond pathetic waking up screaming crying, with big boy tears running down his bright red face. I thought he might have an ear infection Sunday night but he woke up monday happy as a clam and wasn't upset at all when I was messing with his ears. Poor little man.

6. I'm trying to get excited about OU Football starting this weekend. We start out pre-season number one, again, which we all know ends with an unpleasant fall from grace, but such is life as an OU football fan. I can't believe that Landry Jones still is in college. I feel like it is high time for a new quarter back, but I guess not. I am trying to get a trip together to go see the Sooners play this year, hopefully it works out.

7. We finally bought an SD card for our new camcorder. We had taken a lot of videos on the flip camera, which worked wonderfully, until a little boy pulled it off the table, breaking the lens. So we got a new camera a few weeks ago, but we just got an SD card yesterday. I am very happy with how easy it is to work, how small it is, and that is also doubles as a still camera. Now I we can take HD videos of our cute little man and easily share them with all of you! Hooray! I know what you are thinking, yes my phone does take videos but they aren't great quality and it's a pain to get them on my computer so I am going old school with a miniture camcorder.

8. Has anyone been watching the around the clock, remembering 9/11 coverage on the history channel? It is very interesting, though very depressing as well. I'm not sure why it is starting up so early, but we watched about three hours of documentaries about 9/11 Sunday night and then I had horrible terrist dreams afterwards. I can't believe it has been ten years. I have vivid memories of that day, most of which involve my dad. Strange to think that only nine years later on that day I would be attending his funeral. Just a sad day/month all around. I hate September.

9. Speaking of September, I need to pull up from my funk about the month and figure out how I'm going to celebrate Zach's birthday. I hate that the day is pretty much ruined for me forever. I'm trying to figure out ways to make it better, but so far I have no ideas. We are planning a trip to his parents house the weekend after his birthday (Sept. 11th included) which hopefully will be celebratory, maybe that will help.

10. In more positive news I work tonight and then I'm off for six days, chilling at the farm with the family and attending the big wedding events. It should be a good, half way through nights, break.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Blaine's Baseball game

Some how it has become a tradition that we take our nephews to a Cardinals game when they turn seven. Last year we took Clay in May and had a blast, so all year we have been planning to take Blaine for his seventh birthday, which isn't actually until September 28th, but this is when we could do it. I'm not sure that Blaine understood fully that the baseball game weekend was his birthday present, because at one point yesterday he asked us what we were going to get him for his birthday. We reexplained that the game and all the weekend fun was his present, hope he gets that now.

Yesterday morning Zach met up with JR to pick up the birthday boy. I hear they had a fun drive back, with Blaine getting to play games on Zach's phone and long conversations about other video games. When he got to our house he immediately ran downstairs to start playing Wii games with Uncle Zach. Keep in mind he has a Wii at his house, however he does not have Uncle Zach to play with at home. After about an hour of Mario Brothers Three I finally convinced him he might want to eat a little something and get ready for the game. He might have forgotten their was going to be a baseball game involved, but quickly remembered not only were we going to a baseball game we were getting there via train, even better.


At 1:30pm we headed to the 'train' (a.k.a the metro link). Blaine thoroughly enjoyed waiting for train at the station, boarding it, seeing the conductor ( the guy who runs the electric train, not really a conductor, but we pretended), and our 30 minute ride down town. The ride is pretty exciting, consisting of several under ground tunnels complete with fun lights at multiple stops that change colors, very entertaining. I wish I would have taken some of my less drowsy Dramamine, I forgot how motion sick I get on the train.

 Once we got to the ball park it became clear, very quickly, that it was pretty hot outside, with very little breeze. It seemed nice at home, in the yard, with a nice breeze, but in the ball park there was no wind, just blazing hot sun. Maybe we should have bought the super cheep seats up in the top level, which were in the shade. Not the greatest day to be in 'home run alley', the bleacher seats, where the sun was blasting on us. We stopped by the gift shop before we found our seats and Blaine picked out a classic red Cardinals hat for his gift. A great choice for the day!

 After surviving the overly crowded gift shop, we headed to our seats got our food, and enjoyed the game. I couldn't convince Blaine that he should really have a hot dog at a baseball game, so he went with the nachos. He also requested a large bottle of water, smart kid, which kept him well hydrated. We did have to go for a few walks in the shade through out the game to get cooled down. On one of walks we found a snow cone stand, which was doing land office business on this blazing hot day. Blaine got the biggest snow cone I have ever seen, blue of course, which kept him cool for a few more innings. However, by the 6th inning we were all sweaty, hot, and ready to head home. We stopped by the Kids Zone were Blaine got to do a little batting practice in the batting cages and we all cooled down a bit in front of the huge fans.

 I hated that we couldn't stay longer, but Blaine claimed that he had a good time and we were all too hot to stay longer. We had another lovely train ride home, much less crowded than if we had waited until the end of the game, which was nice. Then on our way home we stopped for blizzards, the ultimate cool down treat. I got the August blizzard special, nutter butter blizzard, which I strongly recommend to anyone who lives near a Dairy Queen.

 We had pizza night and more video games before Zach headed out to meet up with a friend who was in town and the little boys got bathed/showed and headed to bed. Blaine and I watched a little bit of Tangled before it was his bed time, it is actually a very cute movie. I was a little surprised since I have been less than impressed with most of Disney's recent movies, but I digress. Blaine didn't stay up too far past his bed time, which he told me was 8:30pm. At 9:15 he requested to head to bed and I was more than willing to get him tucked in with a night light, a flash light, and a stuffed puffin to cuddle, because I was exhausted from our long day as well.

This morning Blaine woke up early with a request to wake Zach up to go play more video games. We finished the end of Tangled, buying Uncle Zach a little more sleep, ate breakfast, then they were off to game it up. I think maybe we should have just had him come up for a weekend of playing video games with Uncle Zach, he might have enjoyed that more. Hopefully he had a good time. We had a blast having him here and it just reinforced how much I wish I lived closer to all my nieces and nephews. Now Zach and Blaine are on their way back to meet up with JR. I'm sure it will be a fun ride. Happy 7th birthday Blaine, we love you!

Books, books, and more books

Zane's favorite activity right now, by far, is reading and looking through his books. His current favorites are
Where? - A slide and Peek book which mom bought for him and which I can't find on amazon, surprisingly.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar- We have the little board book and the big book. Zane loves them both.
Alphabet -Which is a touch and feel book that we got at the zoo and I had to put it out of reach for a few days because I had read it a hundred times, time for a new book.
Brown Bear Brown Bear - We have the big board book version which has a small window that you slide open to reveal what the animal sees. I have also read this book a hundred times this week, but it got to stay on the lower shelves for now.
The Rhyme and Discover Book- This book has buttons you can push that sing and make fun noises. He can keep himself entertained with this for quite some time. Thanks Aunt Abbey for one of our new favorites.
Pajama Time- Pajama time is only his favorite if read correctly, with a lot of enthusiasm. This can be said for all  Sandra Boynton books, which he loves because they are all basically short songs. Perfect for a toddlers.
-His other Sandra Boynton favorites are Snuggle Puppy, Hippos Go Berserk, and Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaurs. All classics and all books I read many times to Brendan and Maggie before Zane came along.

Reading usually goes on through out the day, but there is designated story time before bed. It is unspoken, he just always goes and gets books and brings them too us to read once we start to calm down for the night. I photographed this family activity the other night so I could remember book time at this age.

Here is what the coffee table and bookshelf area look like by 7pm every day.

 Zane chooses a book, brings it to you, then turns around and backs his little bottom up to you. This is your sign that he wants you to read him a book.

 Of course he helps with turning the pages, though sometimes his attention span is pretty short, so you might not get very far in the book. That nights first choice, Snuggle Puppy. (I like to this the phase in the picture below his him reading along, saying the 'Ooooo' part.

 Here we are reading Brown Bear Brown Bear for the 30th time that day. This was his choice from the shelf, of course.

 After I read him Brown Bear Brown Bear he went and picked out The Very Hungry Caterpillar to read to himself. He mainly wanted to look at the butterfly page for a long time.

 The coffee table is the perfect place to check out a pop-up book. And by check out I mean, try to tear apart. Possibly too young for pop-up books.

I love that he enjoys books an seems interested in the story, though if only for short periods of time. It is funny to watch him look through his books on the book shelf, because there are some that he will pick up, turn over, and proceed to throw on the floor, but he can always pick out his favorites. Hopefully his love for books grows as he does, so we can get to reading some of my favorites soon. I.e. If I Ran the Circus and Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel, both of which he sometimes brings to me, but never pays attention for very long, but it gets me excited for the future.

Fork practice

Zane loves eating things off his fork, though he usually needs our assistance to get something on it. So recently I have been letting him practice using it himself so he can perfect the technique of getting the food on the fork. Here is how our latest practice went. I was eating beef and vegetable soup. I know what you are thinking, soup isn't a great starter food for a fork, but the potatoes and carrots in the soup were just bite sized and perfect for fork stabbing.

Here's the play by play.

You must stay very focused and serious while using a fork.

 Then you start with one hand, trying ever so carefully to get the puff on the fork.

 When one hand doesn't work, try using the other hand to help.

 Once the puff is on the fork dramatically put it in your mouth.

 But don't eat it just yet, have some fun with it.

 And finally, sweet success!

All that work for just one little puff, then he starts again. Maybe he will grow up to eat his Cheetos with a fork like Uncle Able.

Ten on Tuesday

1. Sunday we went to the Botanical Gardens in an attempt to use up our free passes to the children's garden before they expire. Turns out parents and children under three get in free so we really could go anytime, without passes, but it was a fun trip none the less. The children's garden there is unbelievable, with all sorts of things to climb, slides, and water features. All of which were in no way age appropriate for Zane, but good to know about for when he is older or if my nieces and nephews are in town. I have plenty of free passes up for the taking!
Here is Zane playing with the flowers that have bells in them and inside a huge bee hive with Zach.

2. On a nights update thing are going just as I thought they would. I am exhausted and Zane has to be in daycare more than before. I tried keeping him the days that I work that night but didn't work the day before, which lead to me being awake for 24 hours and feeling like I might die during the night. So Friday he went to daycare in the morning and I picked him up after his nap at 1:00pm. I hated it, but I felt better and more awake that night, though I did have to float to two different floors. I'm looking at it as one week down only 5 more to go, yikes that is a long time.

3. My sleep schedule is all screwy on the days I don't work as well. For instance I didn't work Saturday night, but had slept a lot that day, so couldn't fall asleep until like 1am. but then Zane wakes up at 7am and I felt like I wanted to be up with him, which led to a crabby mommy and me having to go back to sleep, so I feel like I waste a lot of my day sleeping. Just a negative situation all around.

4. This weekend is Blaine's 7th birthday baseball game and I can't wait. His birthday isn't until the end of September but this is when we could fit it in and it is going to be a blast. I finally have found a babysitter, so everything is set. Hopefully Blaine is as excited about it as we are, cross your fingers for a nice day!

5. I think my new baby shower gift is going to be a salad spinner, for two reasons. It is great at keeping lettuce fresh and more importantly it is a phenomenal toddler toy. I remember Maggie loving it and now Zane is completely enamored with it as well. We had a solid 20 minute salad spinner play time the other day, complete with him spinning his favorite pink hippo and of course wearing the inside basket as a hat.

This last picture was the big hug I got after salad spinner play time. Love my little boy!

 6. Zane is currently working on giving kisses. Right now it looks more like lip smacking, which sometimes leads to him trying to bit my face, in a "kiss." But it will still make you melt. This evening while I was cuddling and singing songs I started to kiss his little head and he immediately spit out his binki and started smacking his lips by my cheek. Be still my heart. Nothing is more sweet than that!

7. Our five year anniversary book finally came in and it turned out wonderful. An added bonus to the anniversary books, which I didn't think about when I started this tradition, is that Zane brings them to me as a book to read. He has brought me the most current one several times, but we only get as far as his surgery before he looses interest. It's a pretty sad story if you only have a 2 minute attention span. I try to tell him that the story gets better, but he is done with it by the October page.

8. I am also getting very excited about my best friend, Anna's, wedding which is happening over labor day weekend, in Oklahoma. We are driving through the night next Wednesday, so that should work alright with Zane, but it is the eight hour drive back from Oklahoma that has me a little nervous. Zane was screaming with boredom on our twenty minute car ride to the botanical gardens Sunday. I have started making lists for snack and entertainment ideas, any suggestions are more than welcome. 

9. On that same note I am currently on a dress hunt to wear to this blessed event, which is a form of torture to me. Here is something that isn't helpful when you are dress shopping and fat. When the clerk hands you a dress and says, "Here miss, this will be slimming." That makes me want to run far far away from your store, not try on the 'slimming' dress. I also got kicked out of the petite section twice on my most recent shopping trip. "Excuse me, mam, did you know you are in the petite section." Not so subtle hint to say, 'you are not petite!' Needless to say the hunt continues with only about 3 free days left before we leave for Oklahoma, wish me luck.

10. I'm off to pick up Zane from daycare and try to salvage the rest of our afternoon. Have a great week!

Zoo day

I have been trying to find a day to take Zane to the zoo during the week. I always think of it on the weekend and then I never want to go because I know it will be crazy, with long lines, and screaming children. Well today was the only totally free day I have, where I won't have to be sleeping, between now and September so I forged ahead with the zoo plans. It rained in the morning, so we went after Zane's first nap.

It was a little warm, but not bad, with a lovely breeze. Usually when we got to the zoo we go to through the elephant/rhino/hippo area because it is closest to the entrance. However, those animals are never out and the cool hippo exhibit is under construction, so we headed up the hill to big cat country and the African animals exhibit. It is a bit of a trek up there, but well worth the work out, since the big cats and African animals are always out and about. We saw the jaguar, who I'm happy to say has gotten a much larger habit since last time I saw him. The tigers were out and about, looking angry, and all the African animals were out loving the heat. There were tons of Zebras, giraffes, camels (I know not from Africa, but they still love the heat), and multiple goats and deer of all sorts. Here is Zane checking out the jaguar.

 Here are just a few of zebra herd. I feel like the STL zoo may have too many zebras, if that is possible.

 This is the surprisingly dark giraffe. There were normal colored giraffes as well, but I liked this guy.

Zane pointed at all the animals, sitting up in his stroller taking it all in. By the time we got through seeing all the animals up on the hill we were both pretty hot and it was definitely time to go visit the, very cool (literally), penguins. On our way there we made a quick stop to ride the carousel. I wasn't sure if Zane would like it, but he is one so it is high time he rode a carousel. I decided to go ahead and let him actually sit up on an animal, I went with the elephant, which I thought was a classic choice. I have to say the boy who never appears tentative or scared of anything, wasn't quite sure about the carousel ride, until about 1 minute before it was over, when he decided it was a good time and started to pat his new elephant friend. I tried to take some pictures, which proved to be difficult since we were by ourselves and there weren't any friendly neighbors around.

After our successful carousel ride we headed to the arctic to see penguins and puffins. They did not disappoint. Zane loved watching the penguins and puffins splash about and also thoroughly enjoyed watching them swim around through the big glass walls. I thoroughly enjoyed it being freezing in there so I let him run around, examining rocks and whatever he could find, while we cooled off.

We ended our day with what turned out to be Zane's favorite activity, having nothing to do with animals. Zane had his first taste of delicious dipping cheese, the type you get with a soft pretzel. He could take or leave the pretzel, but really enjoyed the cheese on his other favorite snack, puffs. He had a blast eating puffs and gold fish dipped in cheese. I found it thoroughly entertaining so I indulged him. After our snack we headed home, for what I thought would be an easy nap time, but it turned out to be an epic battle. I guess he just had too much excitement and couldn't fall asleep.