Zoo Fun

Our Zoo Membership expires in a few days so we've taken to the boys there twice this month to get the most out of it.  I only take the old Sony Handycam there so the photos aren't the greatest, but we sure do have fun!  Here are a few:

Checkin out the tortoises

Komodo Dragon!

Lunch with our buddy, S.  Don't they look like they're in school?!

M hams it up in the Beehive room

M is a worker bee!

Daddy, M, N and the penguins

M hamming it up again, pollinating this time.

N collecting "pollen"

For those of you who've never been to the MN zoo, you should know the "Beehive" is a recent addition, an indoor play area for kids ages 1-3, but most importantly, it has a kiddie sized potty.  A tiny little fully functioning potty that would kill a full sized adult to sit on, but perfect for the kids.  So now we make a "beeline" straight for the beehive when we go in and when we go out, hence all the photos in there.  Also, the boys actually LIKE to go to the potty in there!  So we go.  ("Regular" public restrooms with the auto-flush toilets still scare them to death.) 

We love the zoo and can't wait to go back, when Momma is a little less prego this summer and the boys hopefully (N) are a little less fond of running away from said slow Momma. 

Day Five: Celebrate!

We seem to have made it past the hardest part, so we made today a celebration day!  Daddy has MLK day off, so we applied Pull Ups after a successful morning of pee-pee-ing in the potty, and headed out to the MN Zoo for a day of family fun.  Besides going to church yesterday and for a short walk down the block, it was the first real outing we were taking with our potty trained boys!

And I did NOT take the diaper bag.  Nope, just one oversized purse with 2 diapers, 5 wipes, 2 juice boxes, 2 granola bars, and hand sanitizer.  I'm livin' on the edge here, people!

The boys were in heaven and so were we!  I haven't been out of the house much in the last week, so to re-emerge (victorious?) in a very public place - more public than church, at least, was simply exhilarating. 

N's photo of me at the dolphin show

 N was refusing his photo this morning, so in an attempt to get one, I allowed him to hold the camera for a moment.  The above shot resulted.  I almost deleted it and then I thought, gee, I should show the world what I look like with make up from my kid's point of view.  Not my best angle, but kind of cute because N took it and it's in focus, better than most of mine!  (It's the Sony Handycam, if you're wondering.  They're not allowed to touch the Nikon.)

M's first public pee! 

 I was SO EXCITED that M went pee pee in the little tiny potty at the kid's play area in the zoo I asked Hubs to take a pic.  For the first time in my life, I understand why Kate Gosselin took pictures of her kids' first poos in the potty - I used to think it was disgusting, but now I understand it's a monumental accomplishment (we're still working on that one - prunes will be our snack this afternoon). 

N busy as a bee in the honeycomb

 He still wasn't digging my photography here, but was so happy collecting "pollen" (yellow bath poufs) in the "beehive" I couldn't help myself.

M and Daddy reading a bumblebee story in the "hive"

We visited the dolphins, the penguins, the Tropics Trail, made a penguin picture, and visited the potty again (of course) before heading to McDonald's for our celebratory lunch.

M is very very proud of his penguin picture. He hasn't let go of it all day!

Absolute JOY!

What it looks like to eat out with us! 

N is simply in heaven!

McDonald's still holds its magic.  When we were kids, we thought it was awesome, too.  Back then they had Ronald and Grimace walking around and dangerous teeter totters and merry go rounds outside, so things have changed a bit.  They could barely eat their favorite food, so excited they (okay, N was) to get on the "playground."  M chose to spend most of it on my lap finishing his cold nuggets and fries, but N was climbing, screaming, and sliding with the best of them.  He was the smallest on the play set, but was having the most fun! 

Just when I thought it couldn't get any more perfect, Daddy took each boy to the men's room, one at a time, and they BOTH went pee pee on the big big potty! 

Seriously wonderful. 

Zoo Boo

M's big smiles at the new penguin exhibit

 It's getting increasingly difficult to take photos of my two and a half year old fellas if they don't want them taken - which is just about never!  Aunt L and I took the boys to the zoo on Wednesday and try as she might, she had a pretty hard time getting any good photos, good being defined as both their faces looking in the direction of the camera.  Still, we had a fun time running, jumping, and climbing through the exhibits.  I threaten to leave them with the monkeys.  Someday I will.

They love the tortise in the Tropics Trail.

N's turn!

The new Colobus monkeys on display, with their soon to be brother in red.

Aunt L, the guys and a giant bison they petted going in and out.

Watching the dolphin just before seeing the show for the first time.

They loved watching the dolphin do tricks - for about 4 minutes.

Penguin Parade

Aunt L and I packed up the little monkeys to visit the new penguin exhibit at the MN Zoo.  We met my friend A and her son S to stroll around for the morning.

It's blurry, but a rare HUGE smile caught on camera for M!

Me and the fellas posing with the penguins

The rest of the penguin parade!

 We were about to stroll the outdoor exhibits but it started sprinkling in front of the monkeys, so we went back in and walked the Tropics Trail.  Since M and N were leading the way, we zoomed right through!  But they did stop to snap a shot with Mommy and the tortise, which I think turned out really cute!

N could be MY twin!

Another M smile - he was having a great day!

After dinner that night, we drove through McD's for ice cream treats and headed to a park situated near the rail line in hopes of seeing a choo-choo!  We were NOT disappointed!  Any day that has trains, ice cream, penguins and monkeys is a fantastic day!

Whee!  Strong man N!

Uncle A Week

We have had SUCH a busy week!  I'm sorry to have left you hanging, faithful readers!  I won't bore you with the details because we have so many fantastic highlights!  Uncle A is in town with us for a whole week and they boys are in love with him.  "Uncle A sleeping?" is the first think M says every morning!  And yes, Uncle A is always up last - I think he's enjoying his "vacation." 

We spent Wednesday morning at the MN Zoo with Uncle A and Grandpa A, where we snapped some cute photos in the chicken coop and the play area:

Daddy had Thursday off, so we explored River Bend Nature Center nearby. We told the boys we were going on a hike, and M was so excited he said, "Hike! Hike! Hike!" all the way there!  What's even funnier is that we were trying to buy sandwiches to take on our picnic and we had to stop a few times to finally find a place that was open (thank heaven's for Jimmy John's!) and each time we stopped the van, M would ask, "Eat-eat?  Eat-eat-time? Hike! Hike?"  Poor kid was so confused!  But we made it and it was worth the effort! 

Uncle, Daddy and two little indians

Rollin' on the River...

Here are some more MN Zoo pics...not sure why Blogger won't let me move them around today, but I'd rather you see them out of order than not at all!  Today Daddy had to go to work again, so Uncle A went with us to ECFE.  We promised him a good time at the end-of-the year school picnic and vehicle fair after class - we know he only went to see the fire engines - but it got rained out!  So we punted and had an impromptu party at McDonald's playplace with our two-year-old twin friends from school!  Unfortunately, we don't have any pics of the dozen two year olds and parents, but I promise you it was quite a sight!  And uncle A was quite a sport, climbing up into the two-story play structure with the fellas.  He said it was fun, but then someone (not my kid) was really stinky, which just may be what ended the playtime.

We have just one more day with Uncle A, but it's supposed to rain again tomorrow - boo!  We'll still hope that it will be nice enough to go out for a little bit because we think the farmer's market starts tomorrow! 

Peep! Peep!  I'm about to hatch!

Cute Kid

If you stand on your head, you will see my adorable little boy and handsome Hubs petting a 4 day old goat kid at the MN Zoo on Sunday.  For the life of me, I can't get the picture to flip.  I can only assume I was holding the camera upside down?  When stuff like this happens, I can only say, well, self, if this is as bad as it gets today, you're doing pretty darn good!

The Power Of "Pwez"

S here writing today for this blog.

What a fun day we had today. We went to the zoo and let me tell you, the day to go is when it is unexpectedly snowing and it is about 5 degrees outside because there are only about 10 other families brave (desperate) enough to go. An empty zoo meant the boys had the run of the place and we saw owls up close and fish and they even got to walk the tropics trail, instead of taking it in via their stroller as is custom.

After naps, I had been promising the boys that I would string some lights out on our deck for them to see, but when I started doing so today, it was so cold that the bulbs were shattering and the old lights I had were burning out while I was stringing them. As a result, we decided to split up and have a rare one on one time with the boys. I took M out to the store and Mom and N got to bake cookies. I let M pick out the lights by showing him the choices and the asking him to point to the ones he wanted, multi-color or white. He inspected them and then pointed and pat the multi-color lights. We even discussed the colors, with him pointing out the "geeen" and "bew" lights.

M's vocabulary grows by the day and recently we taught him please, which he speaks as "pwez" in his sing song voice. He is starting to get it and will say "pwez" for food or when he wants his "Binky". At the store, I put him in a cart so we could find our items we wanted and then I got a dual lesson, one on marketing and one on persuasion. Strategically placed near the carts/check-out area are these really cool model cars that you pull back and then watch zoom across the room, the doors even open and close. My little guy must have learned a thing or two from those owls, because his excellent eye saw those cars and I had an instant cacophony of requests for "cah, cah, cah, cah". So I handed him one of the cars so that he could check it out while we shopped. We try to speak to the boys like regular people and I told him that we were not going to buy the car, so he was warned.  Having our items, we went back and returned the car and started checking-out and M immediately began reminding me that there were really cool "cahs" and he wanted one. He finally paused, looked at me and then the cars and changed tactics, "pwez... pwez... pwez... pwez..." he said with pleading eyes pointing to the cahs. I smiled and hugged him and reminded him that he had dozens of cars back home. I didn't give in, but that face and that voice is going to get him far in life, probably with the grandparents!

Girl-Friends and Birthday Parties

We are blessed to have so many baby girl-friends.  Thus begins the birthday parties!  Friday night was G's first birthday party, where the guys each got their own mini cupcakes - a totally genius idea for the little ones! Here's N snacking on some mini cupcake with purple sprinkles, followed by M, who ate on Daddy's lap.  After the cake, the boys were playing with the kids - or so I thought, when I saw N swipe someone's mini cupcake off the unattended plate!  Guess he wanted "more," his new favorite word. "Mo?  Mo?  Mo?" he asks, making the sign for it ALL. THE. TIME.  Even when there's food right in front of him!

Who, me?

Yummy!

Birthday party kids - happy birthday, G!

We had another one-year-old-girl-friend's birthday party on Saturday, too.  Her Daddy took the funniest picture of the three of them!  Two of them did not want their picture taken, but guess who was hamming it up for the camera?  N, of course.  I'll add it here when he sends it to me.  Happy birthday, E!

Today we met yet more girl-friends at the zoo, C & R, who are identical twin girls born the day after my guys!  We've had an all around good time getting together with our girl-friends this weekend!

Bear? Where?

M: Hey, bro, there's a bear!

N: Where?

M: Right there!  Now there are two bears!

N: You're totally lying!  I don't see any bears here!

M: Good thing we're not camping, bro.

More Zoo Fun

Aunt L, M, N and Mommy at the Saginaw Children's Zoo

M and N pet a goat because the llama would not oblige.

Aunt L and M with the crazy-toothed llama

Chicken nuggets come from where?

 

Today was our last opportunity to spend with Aunt L before she goes back to college.  We've had so much fun with her this summer!  On our way back, she "accidentally" let Mommy miss our turn, so we "had" to go to Taco Bell for lunch!  Aunt L was so convincing that Mommy got us each our own mini quesadilla - yummy!  We're napping now - down to just one a day, much to Mommy's chagrin - and recharging for another evening of fun in Michigan.