National Zoo

We decided to go to the National Zoo on Sunday for the last time. We've had so many fun trips here - with Tim way back in 2006, and twice with the Santa Barbara Grovers. We've come with the Sylvesters and friends. We got to see both the baby panda and the baby gorilla grow, and Gabriela had a fabulous time here last Halloween for Boo at the Zoo. We are truly going to miss this place. We've made a lot of good memories here.

Gabriela really enjoyed checking out all the animals.

It was a super hot day, so they had misters on throughout the zoo. They were very refreshing, and we got to see a real rainbow.

We arrived super early so we let Gabriela just wander around without holding our hands or being stuck in the stroller. She chased a bunch of birdies.

my personal favorites, the gorillas

We couldn't believe how much the baby gorilla has grown! She was so adventurous, climbing very high. Gabriela still talks about her. She says "careful baby gorilla". Although her word for Gorilla is the same as Gabriela...and the same as umbrella, now that I think about it.

Check out the giant tortoise!

We watched Tulip the Cow get her bath. She uses piña colada scented soap!

Gabriela must have really enjoyed the alpaca too, because she started talking about them out of the blue yesterday.

The orangutan was cruisin' on the O Line right above us.

Jen and Chris met us at the zoo, we're so glad we got to spend some extra time with them before leaving. I wish I had taken more pictures, but Gabriela was tired and wanted to be held by this time. We enjoyed a tasty lunch with the Sylvesters at Lebanese Taverna before heading home.

Boo at the Zoo

We had a fabulous time at Boo at the Zoo on Sunday night. The zoo was wonderfully decorated with lots of spooky scenes. Gabriela was mesmerized by all the other kiddos her size in their fancy costumes. She would point and walk up to kids and say hi, inspecting their outfits.

So excited by all the decorations and other kids

Love bug

spooky spider web walkway

Check out the back of her cute costume!

My favorite skeleton scene

making friends with the scarecrow

More spider webs and spiders. ginormous spiders hanging from the ceiling!

skeletons catching a game of pool

All throughout the zoo there were stations for kids to get treats. Gabriela got bunches of great loot from a little cloth baby doll, to fresh fruit, chocolate (for mommy and daddy), krisy kreme donuts, organic dryer sheets, tattoos, jasmine rice, granola, and more regular candy that Mommy and Daddy will eat for her, ssh!

We watched the lions and tigers, visited our favorite cows, Tulip and Rose who showed off their mooing skills for Gabriela, snorted with the hogs, saw the gorillas, and even caught a sneak peek of some leopards we never even knew lived at the zoo. I swear, every time we go we discover a new exhibit.

It was a really fun night. The weather was just a tad crisp, much better than I thought it would be. Gabriela was sound asleep one whole hour before her normal bedtime. She was all tuckered out after such a fun day. Unfortunately, after sleeping for two hours, she awoke from what she thought was just a little nap and was ready to play. She was not so pleased that her mommy and daddy tried to make her go back to sleep when she’d just woken up to have more fun.

Boo at the Zoo was spooktacular! We will definitely go again!

Pics

Here are the few pics I took at the zoo before running out of memory on the camera

Stay At Home Mama for the Day

I found out there's something good about Columbus Day after all. Even though we don't have the day off at my work, I had to take a vacation day to be with Gabriela since daycare was closed. I was so excited to spend the day with my baby.

We woke up bright and early, just like work days. I packed her diaper bag and after a messy breakfast, we got bundled up to go visit the zoo. Gabriela loves riding on the metro. She does her sign for "train" every time we see the metro, and she was just beside herself hearing the train noises and announcements.

As a result of my excitement, we arrived 30 minutes before the zoo officially opened. It was pretty empty so I let Gabriela walk all around. She was happy to see birds and squirrels. Oh boy, was she going to love what was in store for her!

We were only there a few hours, but in that time we managed to see the zebras snuggle, elephants drinking water, a bunch of gorillas, including the sweet little baby girl. The gorillas are usually my favorite, but the lion stole the show on Monday. He kept roaring and roaring and roaring and roaring. Seriously, it must have been feeding time. Gabriela knows the lions roar, so it was really exciting for her to actually hear it happen for real! She started roaring back, and giggling, and when the lion stopped, she did the sign for more. I had to explain that I didn't think the lion knew sign language.

We then trotted over to the farm animal section of the zoo where they have cows, pigs, alpaca, goats and donkeys. Gabriela mooed at the cows and snorted at the pigs. George the Donkey came right up to Gabriela to say hello, and my little baby said ALPACA when I told her we also saw Alpaca at the zoo in Peru when we were there last year. Genius, I tell you.

I took about 4 pictures before I got the error message on my camera that the memory was full. I can't believe I left for our day at the zoo together without the memory card for the camera. This is the second time I've done this! It has to stop!!!!

We hurried home for nap time. As soon as Gabriela was asleep I started some laundry, cleaned up a little, made a Bolognese pasta sauce that needs to cook for hours and hours and since I was already at it, I decided to make chicken stock so we could have soup for dinner the following night.

We stacked blocks and danced and read books and read more books and then we kicked a ball around in the hallway of our apartment floor, which is much more spacious than our actual apartment. We all ate dinner together as soon as Daddy came home. Gabriela went right to sleep, earlier than usual.

I really enjoyed spending that extra time with her. I wish every day could be like that.

Zoo Pics

Everyone mistakenly thinks THESE guys are the cousins instead of Jen and me

Jen loves Gabriela sooooooo much!


It's hard to tell, but there's a GINORMOUS anaconda behind Jackson here.

Friday

Our LONG baby and her daddy admiring the jelly fish
Sweetest little baby Gorilla

On the way to the zoo

We were so happy to have an extra day off from work this week. Lane and I still got up early and tried to arrive at the zoo before the masses. We succeeded. We spent the whole morning at the zoo and were leaving just as stroller after stroller after stroller after double-wide stroller arrived. We just can't get enough of the baby gorilla! We checked out the animals, took a little break for snacks and diaper changes and crawling, and then Gabriela napped the whole way home.

We played together and then spent some time later in the evening by the pool. What a relaxing and enjoyable day together.

The Zoo

Sunday was a gorgeous day. Lane actually got a little sunburn on the back of his neck, it was so sunny!

We had an awesome trip to the zoo. We saw the momma and baby gorillas, saw the orangutan climbing outside, the pandas, arrived at the tigers and lions just in time for their afternoon feedings, and we even saw the hippo playing.

Gabriela's favorite were the little swimming turtles. She had her hands up against the glass and talked and talked (or yelled) her little head off to them. The girls, on the other hand, were still enthralled with Gabriela. I think she was their favorite exhibit at the zoo.

Weekend update

Friday night we hung out at Alex & Matt's with Sean & Jessica. True to form, Gabriela stayed awake the whole time and was quite the social butterfly. We were a little nervous that she didn't fall asleep until around 11 pm because we had to get up early the next morning to go to the zoo!

Bill & Julie invited us to the zoo's annual member appreciation event, while it was closed to the regular public. It was awesome!! There were way fewer people than usual. We got to see the panda up close chomping away on tons of bamboo. We watched the oldest elephant in captivity get hosed down for a morning bath, the cheetahs, zebras, tigers, lions, the small mammals (Gabriela loved the Golden Lion Tamarins), the reptile house, and our usual favorite, the orangutans and gorillas.

However, this time was THE BEST! The gorillas were more active than we've ever seen them at any zoo. Two of the brothers were running around chasing each other. One was a little stinker and even threw a pile of hay at another one. They were climbing and coming right up close to the observation wall. We could have stayed for hours watching all this. As if this weren't mesmerizing enough, there is an itty bitty teeny tiny BABY GORILLA!!! She is so sweet! The baby girl gorilla was born in January and she was tinier at three months than Gabriela was at birth. The momma gorilla just walked around like normal with the baby clutching her tummy fur. She'd cradle the baby and sometimes just pat her back like we do with our little people babies. She knew just what to do and how to be a good mama without even reading any parenting books. Check out pictures of the zoo's new addition here. Warning: Your heart just may melt.

After a shorter than normal evening slumber and walking around all morning at the zoo, we ate a late breakfast with Bill & Julie. On our way home, we debated whether or not to walk above or underground to go home. At the last second I voted underground. We were just around the corner from our apartment when we saw all this BABY STUFF for sale! The Junior League was having a sale of JUST baby stuff before their annual Tossed & Found sale, which I am totally attending this year. I was like a crazy woman. I had no idea this was happening, got in late in the game, made Lane relinquish all his cash to me and had him take our sleeping baby upstairs with instructions that I would call him if I needed him to bring me the checkbook.

They charged $10 admission and I bought $25 worth of stuff, including a brand spankin' new shopping cart cover/activity center for $5 that would have cost at least $20 anywhere else. PLUS I won a raffle prize which was a $25 Baby Gap gift card. Totally worth going! We got some board books, some toys, our shopping cart thingy, a book for me, a little outfit and a bunch of long sleeved cutie tees.

Exhausted from this last minute shopping extravaganza, I joined my already sleeping family for FOUR hours of delightful napping. Gabriela seriously napped for at least five hours. I thought for sure she'd go to bed super late that night or wake up ready to play wide eyed and bushy tailed in the middle of the night, but she went to sleep at 9:30 and didn't wake up until 7:30. I guess she just needed some catch up.

Man, so did I. I think Daylight Savings Time kicked my ass. Every night this week I've felt overwhelmed, tired, have been so busy and still felt like I didn't get much done. Maybe this week will be better. The weekend is almost over and we still have lots of cleaning, cooking, and laundry to do. Wish us luck!!!

Here are some pics from the zoo. I wish we had taken more, but we forgot to charge the battery

Checking out the alligators at the reptile house. Gabriela had just woken up from her nap here. She really enjoyed seeing the fishies and turtles swim around.

At the subway station on our way there. It was a little chilly in the morning so we just bundled up extra.