we love the zoo

As stated previously, we went to the zoo yesterday.  We love the zoo.  It's just the right size for kids to run around and get thoroughly exhausted without getting lost.  I took the stroller so I could have a "cart" for the lunch and the camera bag and Little Man's Diego backpack and my purse.  No, I don't travel light - why do you ask?  Anyway, Little Man's little tush never went in the stroller until it was time to leave - and then I had to strap him in kicking and screaming.

 

 

First we saw bears.  This is the first time I've been there and have actually seen movement from within the confines.  

 

 

This is usually all we get.

 

 

Then we went to see the rhino's.  I learned something yesterday I never knew.  White rhinos are only called that because the name was misunderstood.  They were actually called, by the dutch if I remember right, Wide nose rhinos.  Well, "wide" sounded like "white" and that's what it became.  The Black rhinos were named that just so there'd be a differentiation from the other rhinos.  Huh.  Who knew?  I also found out their heads weigh 1000 pounds and the male is 38 years old and the females are 41?  Or 42?  

 

 

These are red pandas.  They're just about the cutest things ever! 

 

 

 

And when cute things have babies, it's even cuter!  This little guy could barely walk.  I wanted to take him home with me.

 

 

  

Our posse of children.  What you don't see here is Little Man trying to actually climb OVER the fence.  Just like Monkey....  Oh, the little girl in brown is a good friend of Monkey's.  She started kindergarten this year and her class met yesterday.  They don't get started every day until the second week of school or something.  If Monkey knew she was at the zoo while we were, we'd never hear the end of it! 

 

 

 

The zoo now has a butterfly house.  Naturally, I loved it.  There weren't as many butterflies as I'm sure there were in the spring, but it was still pretty cool.  One even landed on me! 

 

 

 

This one looks like a dead leaf when his wings are closed.  Pretty cool, huh?   

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have three elephants at our zoo.  Again, Little Man tried to climb the fence.  Maybe he should be called Monkey... 

 

 

 

Everyone is fascinated by a leggy bird. 

 

 

 

Here's lookin' at you kid...  One of two lion cubs.  They're still young, less than 2 years old, but they weren't very active.  At least this one was awake.  The other was sound asleep. 

 

 

 

This is our old silverback.  He was eating a snack... 

 

 

 

There were two inside their house.  This one was posing for the kids... 

 

 

 

 

Our chimps have a baby.  It's hard to tell, but the one in the middle is holding the baby.  We were guessing she was either feeding the baby or the baby was sleeping.  The mommy was grooming the baby and the chimp on the right was playing with the baby's feet. 

  

  

 It was really neat to watch them as a family unit.  The one on the left kept checking on the little one, like in the above picture.  The one on the right just couldn't stop playing with the baby's feet. 

 

 

 

Our white tiger.  We do actually have a nice enclosure for it.  It has trees, a small waterfall, lots of nice places to lay down.  Yet, it's laying here.  On the concrete.  By the door.  Our husky used to do this in Oklahoma, so I'm guessing there's a draft of a/c coming from under the door. 

 

 

We have our very own meer cat manor. 

 

 

 

 

This camel followed Little Man all along the fence.  And when I told Little Man to say hi to the camel, he turned around and waved to an older man sitting on the bench nearby.  The lady who was with him thought it was very funny... 

 

 

 

A very large tortoise... 

 

 

 

The petting zoo.  If you're wondering why the goat is sitting so still.... 

 

 

 

... he was getting his beauty sleep.

 

 

 

Little Man creating his own zen garden...

 

 

Oh, to be a kid again.... 

overloaded camera

I hooked up my camera last night to the computer to upload all the pictures from Friday and Saturday and apparently I haven't done that in a while because I had 247 pictures to import.  You remember that digital camera commercial with the kid in a perpetual cannonball?  Yeah, I'm his mom.  I thought I'd share just a few with you.

 

 

Trey got the kids those bubble guns a few weeks ago.  It was a "blizzard of bubbles" according to Monkey.  Little Man kept wanting to trade with Monkey because he thought hers worked better.  She was just better at using whichever one she had.

 

 

 

The puppy was tearing it up one evening after the kids went to bed.  It was pretty cute.

 

 

 

 

  

 

 At least we thought the kids were in bed.  Check out Monkey's monkey pajamas.

 

It's hard work tearing up a fuzzy giraffe-print squeaky bone, isn't it?

 

 

Playdog centerfold, here we come.

 

Friday was a perfect day for playing outside.  A different park near where we live has fishing docks by the play area.  The kids loved running up and down.   

You can't really tell in this picture, but there's a log house for children to climb on in the center, next to the tree.  Monkey and her friend are sitting on top talking about whatever it is six-year-olds talk about.

 

Monkey felt the need to rescue Little Man from the geese.  I don't think she realized it was the geese that needed rescuing.

Beautiful day.  I could have laid in the grass all afternoon...  until Little Man went head first into the water that is (he didn't, but it could very easily have happened).

 

 

Hannah has come home

 

Well, it has finally happened.  Hannah Montana has come home.  She is officially my little Monkey's new favorite thing.  OK, maybe it's not so new.  It's been brewing for quite a while.  We'll watch Hannah Montana at night, sometimes, during the last half-hour before bed.  

 

What's funny is that even our son is singing (at the top of his lungs in Wally World, mind you) "It's the BEST of both worlds!"  Yeah, that's my boy!

 

I was shopping for school supplies this weekend and Monkey wanted a Hannah Montana backpack.  I tried to explain to her that her current Disney Princess backpack is just fine, it'll get her through one more grade and I'll get her a new one for 2nd grade.  Or, she could use her own allowance to buy her bag.

 

That worked.  Not only did she buy herself a backpack, she bought an old-style tin Hannah Montana lunch box and a Hannah Montana wallet for her money.  Assuming I can get Blogger to work with me, I'll upload the picture I took of her purchase.  No, it's not really a big thing, but it's cute knowing that Monkey is out buying her own stuff.  No, wait, that means she's growing up.  No, that can't happen.  Not yet.

 

Did I mention she lost another tooth?

just an update

Just a quick update.  Monkey has survived the Yellow-Jacket Stinging Incident.  So well, in fact, by dinner-time she had completely forgotten about it, except to tell Trey when he got home (and I even had to remind her, then).

 

Final verdict:  I like using baking soda on bee stings.  It works.  There wasn't even a dot where the stinger went in and all swelling was gone within a couple of hours.  Also, I'm thankful to know she isn't allergic!

 

Now, on to birthday party planning, back to school planning, puppy classes (yes, we still have the puppy) and the regular day-to-day life of a socially driven mom who loves to "do things" instead of stay home and clean.  Who wouldn't, right?

Home remedies for bee stings

(Just a note - for some reason I'm having issues with the thingy that I type my blog in, sorry if it's hard to read for some reason...)

How many of you know a home remedy for bee stings?  Or several?  Well, guess what?  There are a LOT of home remedies for bee stings.  I remember as a child I got stung once and Daddy chewed up some tobacco from a cigarette to take the poison out. I also remember thinking that it didn't help much.

Well, Monkey got stung by a bee today. On her finger. She wasn't happy about it. Actually, she screamed. I thought it was her normal "I have a bug on me" scream, 

because those are usually the loudest, shrillest screams.  The kind that when it happens in our yard, I expect the neighbors to come running to see what's

going on. Anyway, I heard her scream so I look to see what bug had the audacity to land on her arm, when in fact it was a yellow-jacket on her finger, hanging by his stinger.

Apparently bee stings are on the same "screaming" level as an innocent flying bug that just happens to land on her arm. Only this time, there were great big tears. Luckily (or unluckily, since this

was probably why the bee was there in the first place) she was holding a cup with a snowcone inside. I scraped out the stinger and held her cup next to the finger to keep the cold on it.

As we were heading home, I called a friend and asked her what to do with a sting. I haven't had to deal with this as an adult so the only cure I remember is tobacco and since I don't smoke, 

I didn't have any tobacco to chew up. She said she remembered her mom using baking soda and something - either water or vinegar.

Well, since the fizzing of combining baking soda and vinegar on her finger would completely FREAK her out, I went with baking soda and water as soon as we got home. She's watching TV

now, completely distracted. So I took the time to do a little research on home remedies for stings.

Let's see, there's:

raw onion

honey

baking soda with vinegar and meat tenderizer

baking soda and water

tobacco

toothpaste

the insides of a tomato

aloe and/or lavender (I'm guessing the lavender is to calm the patient??)

mud

egg yolk

ammonia (aka urine)

a penny or a nickel placed on the sting

raw bacon wrapped around the sting (I guess cooked would be too tempting to eat)

aspirin

antiperspirant

plantain leaves plus a whole host of different herbal/holistic choices.

then there's all the different remedies you can find at the store.

At our house, the baking soda and water seemed to work pretty well, so we may stick to that. Or we might go with the toothpaste. If nothing else, the idea of putting toothpaste on a boo-boo

will distract them enough to keep tears at bay.

after a good brushing and bath and this is what I get....

Today I did something that I've been putting off all summer long.  I brushed and washed our old Husky.  She's an old girl and the older she gets, the less tolerant of brushings and baths she gets, which is why I've been putting it off.

That and the amount of fur that comes out from her blowing her coat is enough to make another small to medium sized dog.

She does this twice a year.  She starts shedding her winter undercoat when warm weather arrives, then as cold weather comes, she starts shedding her lighter, summer coat.  It's insane.  Once, when we were in OK, Trey commented on the fact that it looked like a dog blew up in our yard (not that we would DO that, of course!).  You know - poof - then a cloud of fur.  I can see it in a cartoon or comic somewhere, only I think it was a chicken and feathers went flying everywhere.

Anyway, this worked out well happening today because I needed something to blog about.  Not that you care that I brush and wash my dog, but I took pictures of the mound of fur to prove to you I'm not making this up.  And it gives me something to write about.

This is the mound of fur that I combed out of her coat.  I didn't even really get around her neck or her tail because she was just too grumpy for all that.

This gives you an idea of just how big that pile of fur is.  Anyone need a pillow stuffed?

Now that she's clean....

... she gives me that "whatever, mom" look.  The one I'm sure I'll get from my kids in the not-to-distant future.

poop and pools

What is it about poop in pools and children?  I'm not talking about tossing a Babe Ruth in the pool to watch everyone scatter.  That's for older kids to do.  I'm talking about little ones in diapers (or not in diapers) who can't  take the time to get out of the pool and go do their business.

But what if they're potty trained?  Maybe it makes a difference, but I just don't know.  Apparently, our son likes to poop under water.  I'm sure this will make potty training difficult in his case, unless I actually let him sit IN the toilet instead of ON the toilet.  Hmmmm.... food for thought....

I should have been clued in last summer when at Mawmaw and Pawpaw's house, the kids were playing in a kiddie pool and on a slip-and-slide.  Being the ever-prepared parent that I am, it never occurred to me to pack swim clothes to go to visit for the weekend.  They don't have a pool, or a neighborhood pool, nor are they at the beach, so why would  they need swimwear?  I forgot that they do have running water and a yard - and that's all children need for playing in the summer.  So when Little Man's regular diaper practically soaked up the little plastic pool, we decided to take it off.   Then he proceeded to poop in said pool (after we added more water, of course).  

Isn't that such a cute picture?  He's gonna hate me on prom night and at rehearsal dinner, but I digress....  Had he been our first child, intense cleaning and scrubbing with all kinds of child-safe cleaners (like that Arm n' Hammer magic sponge!) would ensue and the back yard and kiddie pool would have been quarantined for a week.  However, being much more laid back with the second child, we just hosed him off, dumped out and flipped over the pool and sent everyone to the slip-n-slide.

I thought that was it.  I thought wrong.

This summer, every time - and I do mean EVERY time - we have gone to the pool, and once out on the lake with a friend - There has been poop involved and it's usually Little Man (thankfully, the boat incident was his buddy WB, I was beginning to think it was just my kid).  And I don't mean that nice solid poop that's easily cleaned up.  I mean that not-so-solid, running down the leg, takes an entire box of wipes to even start, kind of poop.  And since we're at a pool, with other people using the pool, we must be considerate and break out the child-safe cleaners.  A hose simply won't do.

The first incident this summer happened at a neighborhood pool with friends who supplied me with many wipes.  At least there was a changing table, but I made Little Man stand on it while I attempted to clean him up.   Truly it was disgusting.  For those of you who aren't parents yet, just wait.  You'd be surprised at what you'll do for your children.  After I wiped him down, I stood him in the tiniest sink known to man to try and wash him.  Unlike the YMCA pool where something similar happened last summer (again!  poop in pools - I'm sensing a pattern here), this pool didn't have a locker room where I could hold him under a shower.  Just a tiny bathroom, without ventilation, and a tiny sink mounted to the wall, without a counter.

He did the same thing at the same pool the second time we went.  This time, I was a little more prepared - I brought wipes with me.  Thankfully, it wasn't quite as messy.

He did the same thing yesterday at a different pool (beautiful pool, by the way, I want this one in my back yard).  Only here's the thing.  I caught him making that "stance" so I knew he had to go.  Since we're working on potty training, I thought this was a perfect chance to get him to poop in the toilet.  So we go to the bathroom.   I explain (to a two year-old) that we can't poop in the pool.  I'm sure he understood.  We go and he sits on the toilet and he does nothing.  What is it about pooping in the toilet that freaks kids out?  I'm sure there are people who can't go a day without pooping and it feels great when they do (did I really just type that?).  I explain again that he needs to poop in the toilet, not the pool.  I think he understood.  He said he was done, so I put his only swim diaper back on (usually I bring two because of our history of soiling at least one at the pool) and we head back to swim.

He didn't understand.  

A few minutes later, as he walks by, I smell it.  Off we go, back to the bathroom, this time for cleaning.  There's no changing table, so I do all the clean-up I can with him standing on the floor.  Didn't have wipes (you'd think I'd learn) so I used what I could find.  He wasn't happy that I told him no more swimming because he pooped in the pool (and because I didn't have another swim diaper) so we put a regular diaper on and headed out.  He looked great walking around in a diaper and his sandals.  What a look for my little man.  

I don't think we'll be invited to any more pools this summer, without at least asking if he's had his poop for the day.  We should stick to back yards where I can just hose him off and be done with it....