Lowry Park Zoo

Last weekend, instead of doing the crazy black friday shopping thing, we decided to take a trip to Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa. It was so much fun! Austin was genuinely curious and looked at all the animals. We had a great time talking about the animals with him.

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.
Probably my favorite part was getting to see these two baby white tigers. They were eight weeks old and the zookeeper said that this was the first day they were out for the public to see.


There was a touch tank with sting rays, so of course we had to touch the rays!!





Washing our hands after touching the rays.


Excited to be at the zoo!


Where should we go first??


Only after taking this cool picture did I notice that the zebra is such a happy little critter....


Watching the penguins.






Here are a couple of other recent pictures.
Ready for a run in the cold!


The toy basket was empty so Tiger decided she should get in the toy basket.


Playing with my toys! Sitting like a big boy!

Just being cute!

Achievement!!

This week is about achievements - achievements of all shapes and sizes.

Achievement 1: Austin is finally able to sit up by himself. It is amusing to watch because he is still a little wobbly, but last night he was able to sit up by himself and play for about 20 minutes and only fell over three times! Watching him play by himself is funny too. I put his basket of toys next to him and he takes out a toy at a time and inspects it or waves it around or tries to eat it and then moves on to the next toy. He has a couple of favorites that he will return to multiple times. When he did fall over, it was always to the side - if he falls too far forward, he is able to get back to the upright position all by himself! Pictures of the sitting to come!

Achievement 2: I have started running again! I use the term running very loosely because I run very very slowly! I've gone running several times in the past week. Each time I strap Boo into the jogging stroller (Thanks, Leslie!), put the dog on the short leash, and off we go. I am sure it is rather comical to see the three of us, but we get the job done. Austin loves it - he doesn't make a peep when we are out and it's good for Daja too. She isn't fat by any means, but she has put on a few pounds since the baby due to a lack of exercise. So she and I huff and puff like crazy on our runs. The only difference between us is that I don't have a giant tongue hanging out of my mouth like she does!

Achievement 3: I was able to thoroughly clean the high chair. This might seem like an insignificant action, but it is a major feat for us. We somehow managed to register for a high chair that has a cover that cannot be machine washed. WHY, I ask forcefully, WOULD YOU EVER EVEN CONSIDER MAKING A HIGH CHAIR SEAT THAT CANNOT BE MACHINE WASHED? IT IS ONE OF THE MESSIEST PIECES OF EQUIPMENT PARENTS OF A BABY OWN!! In addition, the straps of the chair require the intelligence of a rocket scientist to remove them for cleaning. (Luckily Nathan was smart enough to get them off and back on again. I would not have been successful in this endeavor.

Between Austin sneezing in the middle of a bite, which results in flying baby food, and Austin wanting to chew on the straps of the high chair, it was a disgusting mess. I had already spot cleaned it several times, but then Monday night he had a poop explosion following his dinner which necessitated a more thorough cleaning of the high chair. The cover survived the cleaning and looks fantastic!

Achievement 4: The final achievement of this week is that Nathan has been cleared for exercise again. He has taken a bike ride and has gone for a couple of very short, gentle runs. The doctor said at the last appt that he would likely have a short run of physical therapy after the next appointment, so Nathan is determined to beat the system and be in good enough shape that he doesn't have to attend therapy.

Two other notes -
Austin is working on getting teeth numbers 3 through 9 in. It seems to be a process that is dragging on and on, but I suppose they will make it through eventually and he will have 8 total chompers.

Congratulations to Yen and Mike!!! The ninja twins made their appearance last night. Yen and Mike are now the proud parents of identical twin girls. Both babies weighed in at about 3.5 pounds and are doing well!

Pictures!!

As promised below, here are some recent pictures.

Austin and Daddy hanging out waiting for trick-or-treaters.

Our church had a pumpkin patch, so we went out and took some cute pumpkin pictures for Halloween.

Think I'll see what pumpkin tastes like!



Fun in the Jumperoo




Austin and Daddy washing my car.



Last weekend we went to the track by the dog park for a nice walk. Getting both Daja and Austin to cooperate for a picture is not easy!!!

Updates, Updates, Updates

Once again I am running behind on my posting. Today's post has no pictures but I promise pictures will be added very soon!!

So here's the latest.....
Austin is now 6 1/2 months old. I cannot believe he is that old already! Time is FLYING by. The weird thing though, is that for the most part, it feels like he has been with us forever. It's getting hard to really remember life before Boo. (I am sure that I had more time then but I am not sure what I did with it!!)

Austin had his 6 month check up week before last. He is 28 1/4 inches long and 16 pounds, 9 ounces. That is the 85th percentile on height and 25th percentile on weight. Yep, so far we have a skinny-mini little boy! Oh, and his head size is in the 80-90th percentile too. I guess this means my child is a tall and skinny genius! This thought is further confirmed by Yen, who tells me that in Chinese culture, 1 cowlick is normal, 2 cowlicks means you are stubborn and 3 cowlicks means you are a genius. Well my brilliant child just happens to have 3 cowlicks in a row on the crown of his head. (Where the Chinese come up with this stuff I'll never know. Seems to me that the larger issue here is that my child will have to have really really short hair like his Daddy because of the three silly cowlicks!)
Brilliance aside, the doctor says Austin looks really great.

Austin has started working on crawling. He hasn't crawled yet, but he is trying to figure it out. He puts his head on the floor, puts his bum in the air and then pulls his legs under him. Once in this position, he has no idea what to do, so he usually just falls over to one side. He seems to have little interest in sitting either, although we are making a bit more progress with that one. You can now put him in the sitting position on the floor and he will stay that way for a few seconds before he starts to ooze ever so slowly to one side or the other before eventually rolling onto his back. So gross motor skills are less interesting to him than fine motor skills. On the fine motor side, he has already been using the pincer grasp (using the thumb and pointer finger) for a couple of weeks now and from what I read, this does not usually happen until 8 months or so. He uses his pincer grasp to grab toys and especially to grab the tags on toys so he can chew/suck on the tag. I know, it's weird. Last week I had him on the floor on a blanket and he managed to flip the corner of the blanket up and start chewing on the tag on that side of the blanket.

In food news, we have started feeding Austin lots of good stuff. He is now eating baby food apples, pears, prunes (due to a small poopy issue, or should I say a lack of poopy issue?), butternut squash and bananas. Austin is skinny but it isn't for lack of eating. He has always been a big eater and he stays true to form with the baby food. Now that he has really grasped the concept, when in his highchair he is like a little bird with his mouth open!! As soon as you get a bite in there, the mouth opens again for another!

Just this week Austin began saying "dada". He hasn't associated it yet with Nathan but it still excites Daddy all the same. He also is saying "bl" sounds, like blah blah. He has lots to say and though we have no idea what it means, we love hearing all of it.

As for the continuing drama of Nathan's foot, he is back in regular shoes and is walking pretty good. He tends to limp more the more tired he gets, though. Last week he developed a small infection in the wound and has now been on antibiotics for a week and a half. The doctor says the foot looks good and that everything is healing well. One downer we learned is that Nathan will definitely have arthritis in his foot. It may be in two years, five years or thirty years, but he will eventually have arthritis. We're personally hoping for the longer time frame of thirty years, but according to the doctor, only time will tell.