Our Little Baby Blog

Memorial Day Weekend



How was your weekend? Ours was great. We headed down to St. Louis on Thursday afternoon and got in late that night. Abe and Anna both took afternoon naps, which was a huge relief because we weren't sure they would conk out like we wanted, and Abe went to sleep for the night in the car pretty easily. Anna, on the other hand, was up the entire time. I mistakenly thought if I put in a video after dinner that she'd fall asleep while watching it. But Anna doesn't get to watch videos in the car very often (we haven't even used them during the last few trips to St. Louis because we've been able to entertain her with coloring and reading books, etc.) so she was too excited to fall asleep. She watched the Cars movie and then stayed up when we arrived because she wanted to talk with Grandma and Papa. It was a late night...

The driving didn't end for me though. The next morning Abe and I drove to Columbia to visit my grandmother. This week has been especially hard on her. After a bad fall that shattered her shoulder, my 92 year-old grandma had to move to a nursing home. Needless to say, she was struggling with this move and a visit from me (who am I kidding? a visit from Abe) was a good lift for her spirits. It was a long hot day, but I'm very glad we made the drive.




Saturday was the real start to the weekend and the whole family headed out to the St. Louis zoo, along with thousands of our fellow St. Louisans... the place was packed! We met up with some friends from Arkansas who were in town with their four year-old daugher Celeste. She was a doll and Anna was glad to have a playmate.













The weather was hot. Abe downed his water bottle quickly. Poor guy, he is so incredibly fair that I had to keep him in long pants and a hat. Despite the 60 spf, I just can't trust him out in the sun. I'm too scared of sunburns.




We had some fun watching the bears and monkeys and water animals. Anna actually paid more attention to the animals than ever before. As she gets older, you can see her soaking in more and more information.

Anna was very excited to see all the monkeys and gorillas. That was really the only thing she specifically asked to see. They're entertaining, but I always feel sorry for them. I do feel an eery sense that they're so close to being human and cooping them up is cruel. When I look at the gorillas and orangutans I feel like I'm looking at people.

While Anna and the gang watched the zookeepers feed the sea lions, my mother-in-law and I took Abe into the air conditioned cafe and snagged tables for the group. It took forever to get lunch, but it was probably for our own good. We all needed to sit in the cool for awhile. Abe did well and ate quite a bit. Sometimes he gets so distracted, he can't focus enough to eat anything.

Mike and I felt it was important to partake of a funnel cake and grabbed one on the way out. The picture below would be me, corralling two children and balancing a funnel cake on a paper plate. Ah yeah. I got skillz.

After leaving, we were hot and tired. However, we went for a swim in Mike's parent's subdivision pool and had a blast. Abe and Anna did great! Abe was crazy about the water, splashing and laughing. And Anna really warmed up to the pool. She's always very cautious around pools and clings tight to us, but she loosened up quite a bit and was holding on to the side and splashing around, having a good time. It was a lot of fun!

On Sunday we headed out to a picnic at a friend's house. Lots of kids, lots of running around and screaming. You can imagine how much fun Anna had. We are getting a kick out of watching all the children of our friends grow up and finally start to play with one another. Such fun.

The drive home tonight was long, but we felt relaxed and ready for summer to begin. We are excited for more weekends like this!