A much happier June 25th

Today is a year since Zane was diagnosed with TOF. I knew the date was coming up and planned a fun filled day at the zoo to celebrate/get our minds off of what we were doing last year at this time. Last year we spent the morning waiting in a doctors office, holding our baby down for an echo/ekg, and then more waiting before our worlds were rocked with the unwelcome test results.

A year later we spent our morning at the zoo, on a beautiful day I might add. We got there at 10:30 and the place was already packed. The weather was perfect, not to hot, with a little breeze. We sprayed down Zane with sunscreen, including his blond little head since he refused to wear a hat, and set off to see the sites. I decided to become a zoo friend, so I could have free parking, which means Zane and I can go to the zoo for short little trips whenever we want. As part of our membership we got free passes into the children's zoo so that is where we started. I had never been in before and was pleasantly surprised with all the animals and fun things for kids to do. This is Zane very excited about the zoo while we waited in a long line of cars to park.

Zane enjoyed petting the goats the most. A lot of the other activities I am sure he will enjoy when he is bigger, but for right now nothing beats pulling on a goats ear. He petted a few goats, chased a few goats, and a grand time. I personally am not a fan of goats, what with having been drug down a shale road by one as a child, but Zane seems to be a fan. These are the second set of goats he has petted just this week. Here he is with his new friends.

 My favorite part of the children's zoo was the otter exhibit. You could watch them swim around and they looked like they were having the time of their lives! Zane loved watching them swim and when he gets a little bigger I am sure he will enjoy the big slide that goes down through the rocks by the otter pool and the sprinklers that he can run threw. Here we are with the otter statue, reminds me of my Grandma Dotter's Dotter Otter statue from the Okeene library.

We had a quick lunch at the zoo where Zach and I talked about how crazy it is that Zane's surgery is a huge event in our lives, but Zane will have no memory of it and is sure to get tired of us talking about what a blessed little boy he is. I keep trying to decide when to take him to make his free build a bear that he gets for staying in the CICU. I want him to understand what it means and get a lot out the experience, when in reality the he will not care about it at all. Maybe I should just make him one myself.

After lunch we had a tired baby boy on our hands and headed home. This afternoon we played in the pool, before it got cloudy and started to storm. The rest of the day was full of playing (mainly with his new favorite toy, a whisk), reading books, and tons of cuddles. This was a much better June 25th, what a difference a year makes!!! Here is Zane on the way home, totally beat.