The Cincinnati Zoo

Hello! Hope you all enjoyed the last long-overdue blog entry. Exciting news- I actually have something else noteworthy to write about! Here we go!

Evan and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary last Friday (September 18) and to celebrate we took Grace to the Cincinnati Zoo! There's nothing better than taking a 3 year old to the zoo! It was her first time and she really loved it. We really had a wonderful day-

I'm allowed to be up and around in the mornings and am supposed to lay down in the afternoon and evenings...and I've been religious about it up until yesterday! Our plan was to be at the zoo when it opened (9:00am) and stay until 1:00pm (which is when I typically crawl in bed to lay down-and when Grace naps)- hoping to get out of the house, have lots of fun and still follow doctor's orders. We did a good job- left the zoo around 2:30pm. I have to say though, even though I'm up and around in the mornings here at home, I was surprised how winded and exhausted I was just slowly walking around the zoo- I loved being outside and craved the exercise! I'm paying for it a bit today but it was completely worth it! We had a perfectly beautiful day and really made the most of it!

Grace was hilarious because every time we saw really awesome animals (elephants, giraffes, zebras, etc.) all she really wanted to see were the snakes. I have no idea where this fascination of snakes came from but she's really in to them. You'll see at the bottom of this message that she even picked to buy a snake from the gift shop over everything else. We spent lots of time in the reptile house!

At the zoo- Grace also ate her very first ice cream cone. Thank goodness we brought an extra set of clothes because it was MESSY! She loved it and didn't mind getting sticky at all- so funny! After her ice cream treat- we took the train ride through the zoo. Grace loved going on the bridges. One of the bridges was over the lake so we had ducks on both sides- yippee! I got her to pump her arm up and down and say choo choo and we waved at all the people we passed.

After the train ride- we headed home and it didn't take 5 minutes for sleepy Grace to fall asleep. What a day!

One new thing that Grace is doing now is calling me mom (instead of Mommy) and Evan dad (instead of Daddy). It's really strange and we have no idea where she heard it. She sounds really grown up.

I put the extra pics at the bottom of this. I just realized too that if you want to see the pics larger, you can click on them. I had no idea!

We haven't completely dropped off the face of the earth...

Yes, I know it's been a long long time but everything has been really crazy. With the new pregnancy and surgery, not feeling well for several months, painting the nursery, etc this just hasn't been on my top list of things to do. Sorry! Will try to be better now.

Appears to me that I need to change the name of this blog- now since it's not just going to be Grace...hmmm, what to change it to? Time will tell-

So, new things happening... We are having a baby boy due Feb. 7th (will probably arrive between December 27th and

January 10th). Since I'm able to get up a bit now in the mornings, we've been really busy trying to get the nursery ready and going through all of Grace's old clothes to sell. Names have been put on the back burner- as has this blog (grin) b/c those are things I can do in bed. Yes, I'm laying in bed quite a bit now but I'm usually napping- or reading to Grace.

Grace is really excited about the baby and has asked some interesting questions. When we first told her that mommy had a baby in her tummy (about 10 weeks gestation) she thought about it for a minute and then asked, "How does the baby eat?" Very clever! She's still asking lots of questions and is constantly talking about the baby.

When we found out at 17 weeks that we were having boy, Grace said, "no I want a girl...it's a girl." She's since accepted the fact that the baby isn't going to be a little sister and is very excited to teach her new brother lots of things like puzzles and how to dance, etc etc.

Since my last post we haven't really done too many exciting blog worthy things. Grace had a wonderful 3rd birthday party. Her theme was Pinkalicious- after her favorite book and everything was pink! We played games like who has the longest and shortest straw, we fished over a homemade board for prizes (with me hiding behind it- so cute) and other easy games. We had a great turnout and had lots of fun.

We took a vacation to Charlevoix, MI (thank you Mimi and Poppy for a wonderful time). We went on boat rides (even had a picnic on the boat- yummy), took Grace fishing for her first time (yes, she caught lots of fish) and played at the beach and on the sengset. Grace did really well swimming in the pool this year too! Grace loved the plane rides and got to sit by the window on every flight!

Next we took Grace to the Barnum and Bailey circus downtown Lexington at Rupp. She had so much fun! Nothing better than taking a 3 year old to the circus. We still love living in Lexington- it's so nice to just have a 10 minute drive home from big events rather than having a 45 minute drive back to Muncie from Indy.

We expanded our back deck ourselves this last summer also. It's so nice to get the patio furniture out of the garage and use it...and we use it a lot. We love having breakfast out on the deck on weekend mornings and frequently spend time outside blowing bubbles and playing in the sandbox and pool. We love to have friends over for dinner also-

The two baby ultrsound pictures were takeen at 11 1/2 weeks gestation and the second at 19 weeks gestation. It's amazing how much is formed at just 11 1/2 weeks gestation- when the baby was only 1 1/2 inches long.

Enjoy the long overdue photos!