Memphis Zoo!

We went to the Memphis Zoo on Saturday with Brent, Lexie, and Alex. It started out a little cool and when it warmed up it was the perfect zoo day! It took us forever to finally get to see any animals exhibits b/c Ross was so excited to see their water 'exhibits'. I think you can see by the look on Da-Da's face that we'd been trying to leave the entrance for a while when I took this picture. :) "Look Mom more water!"

Finally we got to the first exhibit. This cheetah was pacing back and forth. We definitely got the agitated vibe from it.

We love the primates! Unfortunately this is pretty much what most of them looked like the entire day! Not just the primates but all the animals. They enjoyed the nice weather too!

I said it was a little cool that morning. Orangutans and their blankets are so cute to me!

At least the giraffes were moving around.

More water! Ross could have stayed here forever. The funniest thing that happened was a Dad and daughter were standing over one of the spouts when it was only shooting up in the middle of the exhibit. They didn't realize there were other spouts, and they just happened to be standing on one. They did about 5 seconds later when water shot out. Cracked me up! Yes, I'm evil. Ross inherited the same evil.

The Teton Trek exhibit was by far one of the coolest I've seen! Another sleeper! More water! The most action we see all day is from the flowing water all over the zoo.

When we were standing around the water spouts we could hear the wolves howling. When we got to where they were this is what we saw...

In the past we've watched the pandas for a long time b/c they are so playful. Not on Saturday, again with the naps! Luckily, they are extremely cute and much like I do with Ross I could watch them for a while regardless of what they are doing.

Overall it was a most excellent day! The funny thing is all these animals were sleeping and we couldn't get Ross and Alex to take a nap for anything. I ended up taking an animal-like attitude home that evening b/c Ross was quite the bear!

Stop and Smell the Flowers + a few others

Brent and Lexie have some hyacinths growing at their house and Ross was quite excited to see that. He loves flowers. He went back to smell them several times.

When he would bend to smell he'd always stick his tongue out. He hasn't quite mastered the smelling technique.

On Sunday after nap we went outside to play and of course had to go to Mr. Evan's house. Ross loves to go see Liesel and play over there. His favorite right now is racing down the drive-way.

He also did one of his favorite things; which is climbing in his toy bins. He wanted me to pull him like I do inside. He didn't quite understand the difference between hardwoods and grass. :)

When Ross was sick a few weeks ago his Mam kept him one day and brought Dixie. Ross loves Dixie and she puts up with him fairly well.

Blue ended up with Dixie's color and leash. Ross loves to "walk Blue". Now Blue has his own blue bedazzled collar and leash. In fact, Ross took Blue on a walk around the house this morning.

1st of 2 Zoo weekends

Saturday the weather was absolutely fantastic. Ross was running from 8:30 until 5:30. First he went to his gym class, then the zoo, and we ended the day at Alex's. We met some friends at the zoo on Saturday that I haven't seen since both boys were babies. Yes that is a monkey harness on Ross' back, and yes he does like it. :) He never would look up but he was grinning!

Of course we had to ride the train!

He decided he wanted to sit with his Da-Da so that he could better reach snacks from me!

We got to see the new penguin exhibit and he loved it. Especially when they swam right up to the glass!

Time to go! Note the line behind Ross and Trendon. It was crazy!

We had a great day that day! This weekend we are going to the Memphis Zoo and hopefully I'll do a better job of getting some pictures of the animals.

Quite the talker

Ross loves to talk on the phone. For a while now he's been picking up my phone charger and talking into it like it is a phone. Once he starts we are there for a while calling everyone we know. He goes down the list: Papa, Mam, Pop, Granny, Steve, Brent, etc... Luckily we have short conversations when we call from the phone charger. :) I was able to get a video of him talking yesterday before work.

I also got a couple of pics of him talking on the "phone" this morning. I guess this will be part of our morning routine.

The Wonder Place

Ross loves The Wonder Place! If he would ever stay well he'd get to go more often. :) This time just he and I went and we had such a great time!

The pic below is a comparison from last year, almost 1 yr exactly. He's so big! The first thing he usually goes to is to play in the water. It is the first thing he sees once he gets past the things for the smaller babies. He hates to wear the aprons so he usually gets wet - and he is none too pleased about it. One of his favorite things is the sand table! Once he gets his shirt good and wet he decides to explore and remembers the sand! Yay! his shirt is wet and the sand sticks so we get to take some home. That is a little freebie that you don't realize you're getting with the price of admission. The cup he was holding had holes in the bottom so the sand would sift out. Yay! more free sand on his shirt and shoes. He's secretly trying to create a sand table in Mommy's backseat.

Next he decided he needed some nourishment. He has learned to cook like Mommy - in the microwave. He's quite good at it.

Oh yes he found the ice cream! Who doesn't like a little mustard with their bananas?

From the cafe we moved on to the puppets. He was trying to bite me with his shark. Prior to the puppets we obviously had to make a quick stop by the water table again - note the wet shirt. We also climbed in the tree house and played! He liked the house.

Especially the sliding doors.

We also had to play the drum thing (technical word) that is in the tree house. Mucho fun and oh so loud! He was in Heaven!

Home Sick

Ross has been home sick all week. It started Saturday night. The cold that has been lingering turned into bronchitis, upper respiratory infection, and an ear infection. We've had some fun times around our house. I don't know how it works at other houses but undoubtedly Ross thinks he gets to climb on the table when he's sick. I suppose he's right b/c obviously I got the camera instead of putting him on the floor. First he went through my stack of papers to recycle. Next he made sure the Blue had plenty of fluids.
He also needed to check Blue's temperature. Ross stays on top of temperature taking at our house.
Once he had enough of being on the table he decided he was ready to break free. This was on Tuesday and he'd been cooped up in the house long enough!
Fast forward to Thursday and here we are back on the table, still stuck inside. At least his clothes had been changed. :)
When we leave for work now instead of saying we are going to work we say that we are going to see RJ or Ty so that he doesn't get upset. He hates to see either of us go to work but he's ok if we have to go see RJ or Ty. He's also become quite fond of showing his muscles and doing his stretching. I'll have to get a video of his stretches. It is too funny! (If I didn't like this video so much I wouldn't post it b/c of my awful accent. Such is life. I need to face the fact that I am from AR and have a horrid accent. ...one of these days)

Cousin Alex

We went to Dad's on Saturday for Steve and Granddad's birthday dinner. Of course cousin Alex was there! When we were leaving they were very sweet about saying good-bye. Big Hugs!!

Even Alex wanted to give Ross a kiss on the cheek.

Two sweet boys! Hopefully they'll grow up to be good buddies.