Yions, Tigers and Eysants

The first weekend in October (also the day Nathan turned 18 big months old) we once again took advantage of "member Saturday" and the beautiful weather and headed out to the zoo. On the way we decided we wanted to see the aquarium, elephants (or 'eysants') and the exhibits surrounding the elephants which were the reptiles, hoofed animals and meerkats. I've explained before that we are doing one section at a time so we don't try to do too much at once with a munchkin. We certainly kept to that plan this time.

We arrived around 8:45am and headed in the direction of the elephant enclosure. We intended to circle back to them at 10:00 when they were scheduled to have their bath. On the way we stopped by the Natural Encounters exhibit and Nathan got to see some fish, turtles, acouchi (rainforest rats), armadillo and tiny squirrels. We also saw the red pandas asleep in their tree...so cute! We left the building and passed by the meerkats all snuggled up together in a meerkat love nest. Nathan told them "hi."

Crawling in the fish tank tunnel at Natural Encounters.

"Hi meerkats."

As we were passing the last elephant enclosure (all empty that early in the morning) one of the Asian elephants came out for some breakfast. Nathan was in awe but still responded when I asked him, "What does the elephant say?" Notice his arm in the air (the elephant's trunk).

What does the elephant say?!

We continued on and Nathan seemed underwhelmed after the shock of seeing a live elephant. He was more interested in exploring nature. Pointing out a tree, running fast and slow, touching rope, picking up acorns...all the things that are still wondrous when you are that little and the world is big and new. In our way to our first pit stop of the morning, we were in the neighborhood so we stopped back by to see Jonathan the lion and his pride. He was right up by the glass lounging around and soaking up the attention. One particular lioness was feeling frisky and kept bothering him and pouncing on the other females. You can see her getting ready to attack in some of the pictures Jimmy took. Nathan was mesmerized for a while then remembered the acorn in his hand and was over it.

Notice the lioness about to attack the other one behind the rock.

"Are there acorns over here, Dad?"

"Yeah, mom, I see the swans...boring."

We ate a snack by the duck pond then made our way back over to the elephants. We were a little early so stopped and saw the big komoto dragon. Nathan was uninterested and in a daze at this point. It took us a minute to find where the elephants were going to get soaped up (rookies) but we finally figured it out...along with everyone else at the zoo. Nathan was obviously tired at this point and there were a lot of kids and parents in the small area, so we just stayed a few minutes then headed out to the aquarium.

Zombie Nathan

And I'm spent...this was out clue that the day was rapidly ending.

The best shot I could get of the elephants getting ready for their bath.

We took a zig-zag path to the fish since we were letting Nathan walk. More acorn collecting and exploring of leaves later, we made it into the dim, cool building. Nathan looked at a few fish, was interested in the turtle, but otherwise was in his tell-tale 'must-not-stop-moving-or-I'll-pass-out' mode walking around aimlessly. I managed to get his attention by telling him we were going outside and we were done for the day. It was 10:15am.  Nathan was asleep before we left the parking lot and stayed crashed until we were back in Katy.

"Ooooooooh, sish."

I wish I could say the rest of the day was uneventful, but there was a string cheese incident during afternoon snack (I won't go into details but suffice to say there was a bath and wardrobe change for both mommy and Nathan involved).  Then during their evening walk Nathan fell hard on his knees on the sidewalk and got his first boo boo worthy of kisses, washing, neosporin and a bandaid. I was woefully unprepared on the kid friendly bandaid front and had to settle for one of my boring regular bandaids (I have since remedied this situation with some Scooby Doo bandaids for future ouchies). Nathan kept messing with the bandaid on his knee of course and we kept telling him to "leave it." So when he got ready to mess with it again he would look at us and say, "leave it." Not too sneaky, son.

Despite those kinks the day and weekend were great. Looking forward to our next zoo adventure when we are going to explore the children's zoo area, including the petting zoo!

August in Review

Thank goodness for pictures!  All I remembered from August was Jimmy's birthday but turns out we did a little more than that!

The beginning of the month was full of train riding, pushing and dancing to the train's song (which is evidently the theme melody to Thomas the Train).  Nathan wasn't the only one who enjoyed the choo-choo train!

We also have a bunch of birthdays in the month of August, especially on Jimmy's side. Lolo, Popo, Jimmy, Allen and my dad all share August as a birth month. The most important one (in my house anyway) was Jimmy's, and Nathan and I wanted to do something special for him. However, as per usual I was unorganized and unprepared for the most part. We planned an at home dinner for Saturday night.  Jimmy made Papa's Spanish rice, and jambalaya and we had toasted baguettes with goat cheese, kalamata olives and sundried tomatoes to hold us over. We did manage to get scratch made pancake batter mixed up Saturday night for some birthday morning blueberry pancakes on Sunday. As evidenced by the pictures, I am not a very good pancake flipper-over, but they did taste really good!  Nathan even ate one although he was unimpressed by the blueberries and ate around them. I was surprised since they are by far his current favorite fruit!

Birthday boy (looking a little sleepy) and his biggest helper coloring some pictures.

We had agreed that the iPad was going to count for several special occasions, and this was one of them, but Nathan did color a card for daddy. So all in all the big 3-1 was pretty laid back. That's two birthdays in a row where I didn't do anything extra special to celebrate...sorry, honey. Better luck next year, honey!

The rest of August was uneventful. Hectic at work and a visit (or two) from Jimmy's mom and grandparents. I'm not sure who enjoys their visits more, them or Nathan! We are very fortunate they spend the time and effort to come up and see him so often. Notice I said "him" as in Nathan...because they certainly don't come to see us! I've long ago decided that I was just a womb and am now the means to keep the mortgage paid and the lights turned on. And my mom is no better, so don't think I'm being unfair!  Oh well, maybe I can get some extra hugs once I'm carrying baby number 2 some day (which is not right now so no one get excited).

We also got a visit from Uncle Cantrell as he prepared to move back into his dorm at A&M for the fall semester. Nathan was mesmerized by his deep voice but eventually warmed up enough to actually sit in his lap for some reading.  While Cantrell was in town I decided to make Dad's gumbo recipe.  Dad used to make this pretty regularly (when the shrimp were on sale) and it is the best gumbo I've ever had. Grandma Bryan would say it is really her recipe, but Dad did something to it because their two gumbos did not taste the same. I've been wanting to try the recipe for years but have been kind of afraid to mess it up.  When something is so perfect in your mind you don't really want to ruin it with your rookie gumbo making skills.  But I decided to go for it anyway and it turned out A-Mazing!  The roux didn't burn, the shrimp had great flavor (despite using the "wrong" shrimp boil) and the okra wasn't slimy.  My only error was using too much shrimp...but Cantrell assured me it wasn't really a problem.  

Here are a few more pictures from August to close out this update.

Nathan being silly with mommy.

Organizing the pantry....again.

Too cool

10 Things Mom Says (Episode 1)

Every so often it strikes me that I've said something that generally only a mom (or parent) will say.  When I remember I jot them down and now that I've accumulated 10 (a nice round number) I thought I'd share.

Things mom says:
1. Sure you'll eat the cat food but not your green beans!
2. Be easy with the kitty!
3. No I don't need help going potty.
4. When did you eat so much corn??
5. Don't pick up bugs to show mommy and daddy, just point (after bringing a live roach to show daddy)
6. Don't step on the cat!
7. Why do our cats listen better than our son?
8. Did you just put that whole thing in your mouth?!
9. Yes, Nathan, I'm going to clean up the mess. I heard you the first 80 times.
10. I just want to sleep!!