Zoo Lights 2011

I saved the last 4 of my vacation days for December so that I wouldn't have to work a full week. Sitting in an office chair all day is getting increasingly difficult so I wanted to minimize the number of days in a row I would need to do that for my last month of work. That means, as of December, no more Monday's at work! The first Monday off was last week and we did something fun\special to mark the vacation time.

My mother in law's birthday happened the week before that so we wanted to take her to dinner. As they also live near the Stone Zoo, which has its annual Zoo Lights running, we combined the two into one evening. Now, Zoo Lights doesn't encompass the whole zoo. So, Mike, Dylan and I had a quick trip to the zoo before meeting up for our special dinner.

And I do mean quick. Dylan was leading our zoo tour that day and as soon as he saw one animal it was "let's go see another animal, Mama" or "let's go see another animal, Daddy"! We circled the whole place in record time. While we didn't do any long gazing at anything, we did see a couple of notable sights.

The snow leopard was front and center. He's usually a tough one to get to see.

The gibbons had a new baby and Momma was proudly showing him\her off.

After our whirlwind animal tour, we headed to my in-laws' house nearby where Emily, Mike's niece, was also there to join us for the evening. We had a lovely dinner at a nice restaurant in their town where Emily did a great job of entertaining Dylan so the adults were able to enjoy a somewhat leisurely meal. Then, it was on to the zoo!

Dylan, I think, is at the perfect age for holiday fun right now. He's understanding so much about the world and yet everything has an amazing newness to it that is fun to watch him enjoy. On the top of that list is Christmas lights! We knew he would be in for a treat at Zoo Lights!

The weather was mild for the season (unlike other years we've attended this event) which made it even easier to enjoy. In addition to the lights, Dylan really loved having his cousin Emily there to enjoy the experience with him. I mean, he liked have the adults there too but he's got a bit of a soft spot for Emily. She likes to play with him and he really enjoys her company.

In Back - Bumpa and Nana

Emily and Dylan - Hand in Hand

After doing a quick round of the small portion of the zoo you can walk around to look at animals (and lights of course), we stood in line to take our turn getting up close and personal with a reindeer. Dylan was far more interested in observing the creature than posing for the camera.

I think he was telling me that the reindeer's antlers were broken.
Broken is a big concept for him right now.

At least we got him to face the camera one time!

Emily joined in for a shot too.

Then it was on to Santa's Village. This is where they have a Santa you can take pictures with (of course) but also where the bulk of the entertainment is. There are lots of displays to look at and enjoy and a few rides as well. At the entrance to the village is where we had a family picture taken that ended up on our 2009 Christmas Card. We had to recreate the moment:

Santa's Village 2011

Santa's Village 2009

Then it was time to go visit Santa. While we were standing in line, I worked on coaching Dylan on how the whole experience would happen. He would sit on Santa's lap and Santa would ask him what he wanted for Christmas. So, I asked Dylan "what do you want for Christmas?" After a few moments of thought, he answered "presents!" I told him that's a great answer and that's what he should tell Santa.

Well, you never know how a kid this age is going to react to the jolly old fellow. Once we got to the front of the line, Dylan willingly let me set him in Santa's lap and then proceeded to point to everything surrounding him and paid no attention to Santa. As a good Santa should, he reeled him back in by asking him questions. One was "do you like cars and trucks?" Dylan said "yes." To help the conversation along, I prompted him to name some of the characters from the Cars movies. Then, Santa asked THE question "what do you want for Christmas?" Dylan answered "new Cars movie." Where that came from I'm not sure nor do I know if he knows about the Cars movie recently released on dvd. What I do know is what Santa will be leaving him under the tree on Christmas morning!

Even though Dylan did a great job engaging with St. Nick, he didn't cooperate at photo time. He was too busy pointing out things again - like the toy reindeer prop used to help get a smile. He said "Momma, that deer walking" (as it was) and then pointed to all of the scenes we would soon be looking at outside of the window. Somehow, the pictures they did snap of him gave the sense that he was a shocked deer in the headlights.

Closeup

Funnily enough, it was almost identical to the look he shot the camera last year when he truly was shocked and didn't know what to make of what was going on:

Santa Photo 2011

Closeup

What a funny guy! In any case, we're going to attempt for a smiling Santa picture this weekend when Dylan gets to see him again at my company's holiday party. I'll let you know how it goes.
After our photo op, it was on to the village! Dylan is the absolute perfect age for this place. He loved all the lights, decorations and stared in awe at all of the displays.

Santa's Castle

Then it was on to the rides! We got the 3 ticket pack and first up was the carousel. Dylan and Emily rode on side by side animals and I stood in the middle of them. Every time we went around, I told Dylan to give Nana a smile. He resisted for the first few revolutions but finally he couldn't resist and gave Nana a huge grin. After that, though he tried, he couldn't stop smiling!

After the carousel, Dylan and Emily rode the jeeps. He was grinning ear to ear the whole ride.

Instead of the other ride available, Dylan wanted to go back to the carousel. This time, they rode on horses.

Out of Santa's village, there were a couple of other rides - a train and a coin operated hippo. Because Dylan asked nicely to ride them and because we're suckers, we let him.

Look for the Santa hat. That's Dylan and Emily is next to him.

Coming around on our side.

Hungry, Hungry, Hippo!

At this point, it was past Dylan's bedtime and he was definitely exhausted. We'd seen what there was to be seen anyway so it was time to go. We had to practically push Dylan out of the gate as he was having such a great time and didn't want the night to end. We said our goodbyes to Nana, Bumpa and Emily and headed to the car. A then sad Dylan was asking for his yaya (his comfort lovey). Where was yaya? We couldn't find him! The last time I remembered seeing him was at the restaurant so I called there. Sure enough, yaya was waiting for us at the host's stand. Whew! With a little time added to our ride home to go back for Dylan's lovey, a disaster was averted. Apologies to yaya for getting left behind. However, in our defense, yaya goes almost everywhere with us and this is (almost) the first time he's gotten left behind. The other "almost" time was on our trip to Disney when yaya fell out of the car at the airport and we didn't notice. Luckily, someone draped him over the car handle in the parking lot so he didn't get buried in the snowstorm that occurred while we were gone. Oh the things that little lovey has seen!

Appointments, Appointments, Appointments

So much for keeping up to date. One busy weekend and I'm behind again. Weekdays have been pretty hectic too. Why? Appointments up the wazoo! Even though these appointments aren't necessarily for me (but let's face it, most are), I have to be in attendance for all of them for one reason or another.

Let's start with me. I'm at the point where I'm visiting my ob\gyn every two weeks. I thought I was going to do the every week switch over this week but I was granted a reprieve and have my next in two weeks. After that, it will definitely be every week. Home stretch people! Due to my little excess fluid condition (polyhydramnios), I also have to get ultrasounds every 3 weeks. Since they only line up with my ob\gyn appointments every other time, I'm basically at the hospital every week for one or the other. I also had to see my primary care physician once after my ob\gyn referred me back there for an issue she wasn't sure about. Then, last week, I had to go to the dentist for a chipped tooth. Luckily, it's not sensitive and they were able to just smooth out the rough edges. Luckily since they couldn't have done much more anyway. Local anesthesia isn't exactly a good thing for a woman in her third trimester.

Of course, I've also had appointments for non medical, but just as necessary things. Seeing as how I can't really reach my toes anymore, pedicures are no longer a luxury but a necessity (yet they're still luxurious). Also a necessity is massages. I normally treat myself to these fairly regularly but with my body aching in all kinds of places all the time, I'm getting about 1 a month right now. I tried a new place just this week which was absolutely glorious. I might have to go back weekly until I'm no longer pregnant. It was extremely therapeutic!

Then there's Mike. While he was able to get through his annual check up to the primary care physician without my watching Dylan, I did have to join him at the dentist office twice within a couple of weeks. Once for his regular cleaning and the next to replace a couple of old fillings. The good side of that is that Dylan and I sat in and watch a bit of each appointment so that Dylan can start getting familiar with this whole dentist concept. Pretty soon, we'll have to start taking him in for dental check ups too!

The whole family has been in for a few appointments in the last couple of weeks as well. We had a photo session last week for some holiday photos (Christmas card showing some of these off to come). Mike and I also sat down with a lawyer a little over a month ago to get one of our resolutions hammered out - a will! Last week, we all went in (Dylan did a great job entertaining himself) and signed the paperwork. That was a huge accomplishment to check off the list.

Then there's Oliver. Poor Oliver. After our medical scare with him several weeks back, I've had many phone calls to the vet on the progress of his health. The dedicated vet that spent many hours helping me out is the one near our old house. A couple of weeks ago, we finally met up with our new vet in our new neighborhood. We all liked her very much....well, except for Oliver. If you are a vet, he's pretty much automatically going to hate you. Anyway, we went in for an appointment, he had some more blood work and we're still adjusting medications. However, generally the big (but somewhat smaller now) guy is doing well.

So, pretty much the whole family has been having lots of appointments. Except for Dylan. Thank goodness he's staying in good health and is being a trooper about being dragged around to appointments for everyone else. In any case, all of these markings on the calendar are keeping our daily lives pretty busy.

A Furious Few Days

For once, I'm actually staying semi current with this ol' blog. With my time feeling very limited and lots of countdowns going on (to Christmas, to last day of work, to due date), I don't feel like I have the luxury of getting behind. Nothing like some good big deadlines to light a fire on me to keep me motivated!

My parents flew out Tuesday morning. Between the Christmas tree farm visit on Saturday and their departure Tuesday, a lot of things happened at the house. For some reason, every time my parents come to visit, I take full advantage of the extra hands and put them to work. While I usually feel guilty about this, when I think about it more, they sort of kind of bring it on themselves. I don't think those two would know what to do with themselves if they weren't put to some sort of task. In fact, when we didn't have something specific for my Dad to do at any particular moment, he was usually cleaning or putting away dishes, never idle.

Now, before they came, my Mom committed to helping me make curtains for a few rooms. And by "helping" I mean I had found and bought fabric and hardware and she actually did the hard part and sewed them all. In just two and a half days, she mended some random items we needed mended, hemmed some pants and sewed curtains for three rooms. Three rooms! That was 15 panels in 3 different fabrics and 3 different lengths. She also completed a last minute plan for a new duvet cover for the guest room to match the curtains. And yet, she still found time to hang out and play with Dylan. That lady is amazing! I do hope to get pictures up of those rooms soon but I have a few other details I'd like to get decorated first.

As for my Dad, he assisted my Mom (that much fabric going through a machine is cumbersome and a helper is invaluable) and also helped Mike and I with some handy projects around the house. In addition to helping us install all the curtain rods our custom made curtains would be hanging on, he and Mike spent quite a bit of time hanging organizational stuff in our garage. I know he helped Mike with a long list of stuff but I honestly never saw that list and most of this happened while I wasn't paying attention so I don't really know what all he did. But, I do know he stayed busy and helped get some much needed things checked off the list. He, also, spent some time playing with Dylan and making him giggle. That kind of "help" is priceless!

Last weekend was kind of a blur and so many things were going on yet I can't think of many more to list. Probably the fact that I was half sick one of those days and still recovering from the Thanksgiving madness means I was just too tired to commit all the details to memory. Rest assured, my folks helped us out a lot. And, as always, we appreciate it more than they'll ever know. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Not all work was unfun though. Mom and Dylan also helped me by getting the tree decorated. While Dylan had no interest in actually hanging ornaments on the tree, he was very proud of himself for bringing me the ornaments I had unpacked in the other room. Several times since as he's been admiring the tree (and he does check out and name all the ornaments at least once daily), he's said "I help Momma!"

Monday I was back at my desk work while more manual labor type work was happening at the house (not there means more reasons I'm oblivious to all that happened). When I got home on Monday, a very excited Dylan met me at the door yelling "what happened to tree, Momma? What happened to tree?" As I turned the corner to where our tree was standing in the entry way, I saw Mike, Mom and Dad all on different levels doing clean up. Our tree "mysteriously" fell over while Dylan was by himself and very near to it. Very mysterious indeed. We lost a few ornaments in the fall but very luckily none of our really sentimental ones. Now, our tree is well secured with twine tied around surrounding banisters. Hopefully there won't be any more mysterious falls!

Since my folks left, we've been doing important things like catching up on our dvr'd shows and sleep. I have a big list I've been working on to try and attack this weekend so I hope to have some new news next week. Until then, ciao!

Let's Start Christmas

Last Saturday, with our fridge still packed full of Thanksgiving leftovers, it was finally time to start our Christmas festivities. Dylan and I had been itching to do so for weeks already but I kept telling him (and myself) that we had to wait until after Thanksgiving. Once Thanksgiving had come and gone, there was no holding us back. It was time to get decorating. First on the list, our Christmas tree!

Last year we went with my in-laws to a farm just over the border in NH to get our tree. It was a fun outing for everyone so we decided to continue the tradition this year. Saturday morning, we got up, got ready, had breakfast, and headed out the door for our hour long drive. We met my in laws at the farm. Dylan was quite the lucky boy to do such a fun thing with both sets of grandparents!

The weather, as it has been most of November, was unseasonably warm. We all stripped our jackets off pretty soon after arriving. We spent about an hour walking through the rows of trees, finding the perfect one, cutting it down and getting it wrapped up and tied down on the car. Pictures tell most of the story, so here they are.

Dylan liked to ride on the cart. (Me, Nana, Dylan and Pipaw)

We kept asking Dylan what he thought of a particular tree and he always said "it's too big!"
Apparently he wanted one more his size.
(We bought a fake little one the other day so that he could have one his size too.)

Pushing the cart was fun too.

Helping Dad Look for Our Tree

Mike and I taking a close inspection of this tree. Yup, that's the one!

Cutting it Down

TIMBER!!
(Don't worry, Dylan's safely out of the way and not squished underneath.)

Mike and my Dad loaded it onto our cart.

Our Tree

Now to help Nana and Bumpa find theirs.

And this is it.

The boys went off to explore for a bit. Dylan had fun jumping over the exposed stumps.

While Mike and Dylan went off exploring, they left my Dad to haul in the tree.

Nana and Mimaw hanging out.

Bumpa and Dylan Returning the Cart

Dylan Checking out the Fire (but not too closely!)

Our Tree Getting Wrapped Up

Dylan Inspecting the Tie Down Job - Yup, It's Good

And Bumpa's too

With the trees loaded up, it was time to make the trek home. Dylan does best when he sticks as closely as possible to his usual sleep schedule so we had to get him back for his nap. That afternoon, while we did get some decorations out and up, we didn't get any on the tree. Sunday we spent some time on that though. More on our busy fun weekend to come.