Bekah's New Friend

So much is happening here in our new home. I am networking and trying to find playmates for the kiddies, and mommy friends for me. It is tiring. I have met a lot of nice people, but haven't spent enough time with them yet to consider them 'friends'. Getting close to people is WORK! It doesn't help that every time I meet someone, the leave on holidays!

One of the places that the kids and I recently got to explore is the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. It is a wonderful park, and we had fun despite the stinkin' heat.

We ended up walking out of the zoo with a membership, but not just a regular membership, it's a gold membership. I am such a sucker. At least part of it is tax deductible. :)

I loved the manatee exhibit. I was surprised that the kids weren't more into it though...they loved the baby tigers the best. Did you know that manatees eat lettuce? Big heads of romaine lettuce. Yum... Below are the kids with the manatee statues.

Here we have Noah on the Rhino at the front of the zoo (no, it's not real).

The gorillas were amazing to see! There were about 7 or 8 of them. This was obviously the alpha male of the group. He had such a presence about him. He was absolutely massive in size! We called him the Papa gorilla. Whenever we see something big, my kids say that it is the Papa of the group. Papa is the name they have for my dad....and anything that is small is 'Bekah sized'. Look at the look on his face....grrrrr.

This little guy decided to hitch a ride...just like my kids!

This woman was walking around the zoo with a baby wallaby in a carrier. We were able to go right up to them and ask questions. We learned that the wallaby was being groomed to be put in the Children's Zoo. This woman would walk around carrying the wallaby every two hours so that the animal would get used to encountering children. When we got home Noah told Kevin that we saw a lady with a kangaroo in her purse. :)

The highlight of the day was when Rebekah got to feed the giraffes. Noah preferred to watch from a distance (wink), and I was in charge of photography, so Bekah stepped up and fed the giraffes without hesitation. That's my girl!

Here we have Bekah feeding the giraffe on video.



Overall, it was a great day and we can't wait to go back! Maybe next time I will get to feed the giraffes. :)

Some Updates...Finally!

Well, we made it to our new home! We have been in our house two weeks as of yesterday. This will be a quick post...just to give you the highlights, and I will try to write more later.


- Noah had his first bee sting on our first day in the house. It was strangely reminiscent of when we moved into our last house and I was stung. He survived the ordeal with only a few tears, and now he just runs whenever he sees something remotely resembling a bee.


- Bekah has developed a new fascination for bugs. She has learned how to flip off the top level of retaining wall stones in our yard in order to find what she refers to as 'rolly pollys'. They are disgusting, fat, little bugs that roll up into a ball when you touch them. The real kicker was when Noah came running up to Kevin and said "Rebekah has a rolly polly in her hand and it's having babies!". GROSS! Kevin checked it out and sure enough, there appeared to be a trail of something-or-other coming out of the bug in Bekah's hand.


- We have also learned that fireflies do not fly fast enough to out-fly Rebekah. We came home after dusk one night and she discovered that she can catch them in her cupped hands. We could see the light shining through her pudgy, cupped, little hands. She even managed to catch one to give to Noah. :)

- Cows are our neighbours...and therefore so are a lot of black flies. :S One of those things that isn't really disclosed on a property disclosure agreement. We have a house on one side of us, woods on two sides, and a field on the other side. We didn't initially realize that the field is connected to a farm and the cows come right up the hill to graze. They are close enough that the kids can stand nose to nose with the cows through the fence.


- We had a deer in our front yard this morning. He looked like he was eating something close to my front porch...I am hoping it was the weeds.


- One night on our way home we had a mother deer and two of the smallest baby deer we have ever seen run across the road in front of us. The poor little things were panicked and didn't know how to get over the guard rail. One ducked under, the other one ran back and forth along the side of the road while I yelled at poor Kevin to go and rescue it. Fortunately, it didn't come to Kevin running in traffic too...the little guy found his way under the guard rail to safety before Kevin could make his move.


- We have all but our basement unpacked. Nothing is hung on the walls....but trust me, it will be soon. I am getting ready to wield the hammer myself.


I think that is the update for today. My bed is calling.....