The Toledo Zoo

So it's been many years since I lived in Toledo and in that time the Zoo got a new slogan, but I can't get the old slogan slash jingle out of my head every time I talk about the zoo. So here it goes... pretend I'm singing it to you... The Toledo Zoooo - It comes ali-ive for youuu! I spent many a summer day at the zoo growing up.  It didn't hurt that we only lived about a mile away from the zoo and always had a membership. I remember walking to the zoo and then knowing that after we were done looking at the animals that we still had to walk back home. Ha! The things we remember from our youth.  I also have vivid memories of when the Panda Bears were loaned to us from China - that was an exciting summer and I totally had a shirt with the pandas on it. If you were a kid in the 80's in Toledo you did too. I'm sure. And I also always loved the koalas and wanted to hold one. And at least 3 of my birthday parties growing up were at the zoo.  My mom pointed out to me the area that my birthday parties took place as we walked past them on Friday. (I always got to pick out what animal I wanted on the cake.)

On Friday we decided to take Adalyn on her first trip (of many) to the Zoo! Thanks to my parents yearly membership it was a nice inexpensive day for us:) - Well, unless you count how much the food and drinks were!

 Mom always gets a picture of the grandkids in front of this polar bear. Adalyn's first of many pictures!

 A real polar bear up close and personal eating some ice cubes on a swimming break!

 Waiting in line for Adalyn's first train ride! We rode through Africa! (Oops! Adalyn's bow is so big that it is right in front of mom's face!)

 Some of the animals on the African safari train ride. They have special giraffes that have funny spots.

Sweet baby! She had this sweet watermelon bubble outfit on (that I got at a consignment sale!) and she got soo much attention and so many compliments. I guess northerners aren't used to the way that southerners get dolled up for a play day! (HA! I'm actually referring to us as southerners??!) {And really it wasn't like she was in a dress... it was a bubble outfit!}

  This stone elephant has been at the zoo for forever. We have many pictures of me on this elephant growing up. (They even have soft ground around it since everyone sits on it.) Little known fact... The elephant's trunk broke earlier this year and my uncle's stone company fixed it and it looks good as new. No one would ever know that it had surgery!

 Three generations! (My mom used to come to this zoo as a child also.) Adalyn looks like she was posing!

And this chimp was posing too! It was too funny. He was showing off!

We had a great time at the zoo and even though the temperatures were high, it was very pleasant. We missed seeing the 3 week old baby elephant and I was so sad. I guess that means we'll have to go back soon!  I'm sure this will be the first of many trips for Adalyn to the Toledo Zoo...It comes alive for you! (I'm ignoring the updated "I love my zoo" jingle...and taking it back to the 80's.)

Patience and Trust

Are two things that are hard for me. I'm impatient and I think with today's modern conveniences and internet at my fingertips, patience is even harder for me.  I think it's always hard to hand over the reins of my life and trust God to lead the way. I mean, I want to do that but I get so caught up in worrying about something going wrong that I always tend to take back over. Good thing God dishes out grace!

The last couple weeks have been difficult in that Adalyn's "Nona" {childcare provider} gave us her 2 weeks' notice because she wanted to start a new venture. It pretty much rocked my world. We all loved Nona and didn't have any plans to not have her help us raise our child until preschool (or I become a stay-at-home mom...whichever is first). I was just sick about it. Jonathan is such a wonderful husband and took over the childcare provider search because he knew I was too emotionally invested to be doing the search and weeding through the possibilities. We wanted in-home care and we needed it to be somewhere on our side of town. Well, for two weeks nothing turned up. I started calling daycares and all of the good ones had LONG waiting lists.  Some daycares never even returned my emails or calls. We did find one daycare that I absolutely loved. I wanted to sign up that day but Jonathan reminded me that an extra $35 per week from what we were paying would put a serious strain on our budget. $140 per month makes a big difference! We finally got to a week ago Friday and Adalyn needed to start somewhere the following Tuesday. So I was ready to sign on the bottom line for the daycare and just make the money situation "work".

Friday afternoon I was off work and Jonathan emailed me a craig's list ad. I told him to go ahead and contact her to ask her location and price and availability. Needless to say, Friday evening we had 2 interviews with in-home providers. We loved both of them! They were both on our side of town and the one Jonathan had found Friday afternoon? Yeah, she lives in our neighborhood. .7 miles from our house to be exact. Why can't I learn to trust God? It's not in our time, it's His.  He's never late. He's always right on time. You'd think that I would have learned that in the past with Jonathan's job, our house sale, our infertility, and our pregnancy scare just to name a few lessons. But I obviously still need to be reminded.

Oh yeah, and our new childcare provider? Instead of spending $35 per week more than what we were paying before, we are saving $40 per week from what we were paying! Wow a cost savings of $160 per month. God provides.  Last Tuesday was Adalyn's first day in her new environment and we had a glowing review. It was interesting hearing a [pretty much] complete stranger who has never cared for Adalyn before tell us that she is the easiest baby she's ever had. {Yep} That she loves to talk. {Yep} That she has no interest in crawling even when they put her toys out of her reach. {Yep} And that she is all around content and happy. {Yep} So she pretty much already has Adalyn figured out and so far we are great with the new care and ecstatic with our .7 mile commute!

Five Years Ago Today...

Five years ago today I married my best friend. It's hard to believe that 5 years have flown by so quickly, but single life feels like a lifetime ago.  I guess that's how these things go. The past few years I've written about our anniversary here and here. And Jonathan wrote a blog last year here. 

(My reception shoes!)

It's hard to not repeat my words from my previous posts. Jonathan, I love you much and am so thankful for your leadership and guidence in our marriage.  I'm so blessed by you and am so lucky to be married to you.  You're an amazing husband and daddy!  It's amazing how many things have changed since last year's blog post! And I can't wait to see what the changes will be on our next anniversary! 143

8 Months

Adalyn turned 8 months on Saturday! She is just the sweetest thing and now holds us tight like a hug and gives us big open-mouth wet kisses. I L.O.V.E. it!! She says da-da all the time. She is constantly trying to talk to us. And we love it when she says something loud and then whispers it. It's adorable! I have this feeling that she may take after my brother and be talking in full sentences before she is crawling. (Just kidding, Aaron... kinda) haha! She hasn't been too interested in crawling. She's just happy sitting or lying on the floor where ever you put her, although she does roll over more frequently. 

She is still in size 6-12 month clothes and they are no longer "big" on her. And her 6-9 month sleepers are starting to get snug in the legs since she's so long! She wore a dress last Sunday that I just HAD to have her in one last time, but it was a 3-6 month and a little short. I get really attached to some of those clothes and can't bear to pack them away! We are still in size 3 diapers. And I haven't put shoes on her feet since her dedication so I couldn't even say what size they are! It's summertime in Kentucky! Who needs shoes?

Adalyn is continuing to be a good eater. We have a large menu of {homemade} fruits and veggies that Adalyn inhales. She has finally come around to eating her green beans but still isn't sure about cauliflower and gags over avocados. She likes any type of fruit and especially loves apples, pears and fresh bananas. We're going to try mangos this week! She tried some puffs for the first time this week and wasn't so sure about it once it was in her mouth. But she is intrigued. It's precious watching her hold it and try to get it to her mouth! She is still figuring out the sippy cup thing. Thankfully Billie suggested the Nuk sippy cup because it is soft compared to other cups. Adalyn really likes chewing on it but still can't figure out how to tip the thing to get the apple juice out. But when mommy helps she does great!

Here are our pictures from this week.  Now that she is active it's getting harder and harder to get a good picture in her normal monthly poses! Can you tell?

I love those chubby legs! (Her onesie is still a 3-6 month.)

Smiling at her daddy. So sweet.

Not willing to just lay still...she has to be doing something!

Trying to find her bow to pull it off since mommy wouldn't let her play with her sticker.

In the middle of pulling her bow off. That stinker! :)

I think she was ready to be done with her photo shoot:)

Big Stuff

Jonathan was feeding Adalyn the other day and she took on over with the bottle. Where has my baby gone?

Is there anything cuter than a baby in just a diaper?!  :)

We have Visual

Adalyn was extra smiley last week one night so I got the camera out. She was talking up a storm and I took a picture mid-word (she was saying da-da) and I actually captured a picture of her bottom teeth. They've been in for a while but it's hard to get them in a picture! She's cutting another (at least one) couple teeth on the top right now. Poor thing.

There were lots of smiles! 

 And some carpet "swimming". She can't figure out how to leave her knees on the floor to crawl so she just kicks and kicks them in the air. So cute.

 This looks like some sort of yoga pose:)

Sweet baby!!

Swim Lessons

Adalyn started swim lessons on Tuesday. They are twice a week for the month of July and she loves them! It's a "parent and me" class so I hold her and she kicks and splashes. It's pretty cute. The instructor kept saying that she never sees kids as young as Adalyn so splashy and excited about being in the water. So that's a great thing!!  Bad news is that the class is indoors in a warm water pool. Not fun when it's blazing hot outside and you'd rather be in a nice cool pool. oh well. Jonathan tried to get some pictures with our big lens on the camera and the lifeguard on duty told him he was not allowed to take pictures. BOO YMCA!! But he got his phone out and took a couple {very grainy} pictures anyway. He's such a dare devil:)