Zoo-lander

This falls into the Stuff I haven't blogged about and should have, but it happened so long ago, yet I still want to mention it category:



On Nov 16th, I took CMan and Jordan to the zoo for the first time ever. Yes, Chris had never been to the zoo before then. This might surprise those of you that go to the zoo like a jillion times a year.

When Chris was a baby, I always said that I would never take CMan to the zoo until he could say the names of the animals and tell me that he wanted to go to the zoo himself. Before then, I considered it a waste of time because he wouldn't really know what the heck is going on. I'm glad I waited. It was more fun for him to see the animals and name them and be able to have a conversation about them (Jordan went along for the ride). When JJ is 3 maybe we'll take them again.

I don't know, but I just can't see why one would need to go THAT often. I mean, the animals aren't going to change. It's the same old animals in the same old hot sun (we picked November so it wouldn't be hot). No need to do that more than once every couple of years..really. I think the last time I went to the zoo was before Hurricane Andrew....um wow, that was in 1992, so you do the math.


Anyway, he had a great time and got to ride a camel and feed the giraffes. The giraffe's long black tongue freaked him out a bit though.







The rest of the pictures can be found here.


We also went to Jungle Island a couple of weeks ago, so that was a first for all of us. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures, but my aunt did. If/when she sends them to me, I will share.

Our next goal?...the Miami Seaquarium. It's been even longer since I've been there!

Here ducky ducky

Chris found two baby ducks that were quite tame...



That's right ducky get closer...



Here's some food, a little bit closer....closer....



Aha! I GOT YOU!



*No baby ducks were harmed in the making of this post.

And now, some animals

R filmed four bluejays beating up on another bluejay. Bird gangs.



We went to the lake to feed the turtles...

and the ducks.

Just because I like pirates, doesn't mean I want to BE one.

I'm really starting to become an ER whore here. Pretty soon, they're going to greet me by name when I walk in.
Yesterday, while trying to wrestle a paper from CMan's hands, I managed to get a paper cut in my eye. Yes, you read right...only I would get a paper cut on my eyeball.
If it hurts on your finger, imagine how it feels in your EYE! I saw stars and covered my profusely tearing eye and had visions in my head of having to wear an eye patch for the rest of my life. Yes, I'm a bit morbid and exaggerated, so I immediately imagined the worst. Fortunately, the cut wasn't deep and I was given eye drops to use every 6 hours for the next 7 days.

Anyway, I still have some pictures to share from last week. It's all Amanda's fault though. Now that I have discovered PackRat on Facebook, I haven't been able to do anything else. I'm already a pack rat in real life, so this game just feeds on my natural tendencies.

Swim class went well last week with some more underwater action. It's called a mommy-and-me class, but there were no mommies in the pool this time.

Last Sunday (not this one that just passed, but the one before it) we went to a birthday party for Nathan who was turning 3. They had three chihuahua puppies running around at the beginning and Chris couldn't get enough of them (OK fine, I couldn't either). He hung out at the party and had a great time. There was even an old school piñata with blindfold and everything. I'm happy to report that nobody got whacked with the stick. There was so much candy in that thing that Chris filled up a whole bag and then started loading up his pockets too!

Here's a little video of Cman playing with the puppy (aw...I miss my little Peewee).



On a final note: Happy Birthday Adrian. Once again, I'm sorry about your rug. In all the commotion, I forgot to give you your present too. I can just imagine what ya'll are saying now: Not only does her kid pee on my rug, but she didn't bring a present either, Wench!

ps. Let that be a lesson to all of you. If you post about your son's outstanding potty abilities, you will be publicly humiliated by said son when he pees on the rug in front of everyone else. Potty Karma is a bitch. Arrrgh!

I'm almost scared to tell you that he slept in a big boy (twin) bed last night.

Flowers and Family

On Saturday after we made brownies, Cman headed outside to play with grandma while I took pictures of the pretty plants and little animals that inhabit her yard.

That evening we headed up to Ft. Lauderdale to meet up with my cousins (along with their mother, spouses and children) who were in town from Guatemala. They were all heading out to Disney (six kids under 5!) the following day, so it would be our only time to see them (and meet all the little kids at once) since we hardly ever go to Guatemala. It sure is hard to round up 7 children and 8 adults and get them to sit still.

Crazy dreams and unfriendly pigs

Here I am, five days later, still sniffling away. What is going on people? This is the longest cold I've ever had. Ugh! Another thing about this prego thing that I didn't get last time that I'm getting this time are these crazy dreams. Oh my god, every freaking night! I don't know if I have always had them and I just don't remember them, but now I have one every night and I remember it every morning. Take last night for example, I dreamt Obama showed up at my parents house to try to convince my dad to stop smoking (um...he doesn't smoke). Huh? The night before I dreamt I was on the Bachelor and the stupid guy kept forgetting my name, so finally I just clipped my name tag on to his tie...that oughta do the trick. Crazy stuff. I keep saying I should write them down, but I'm just too lazy.


So after last Friday's surgery scare, Christian was feeling fine by the next day. On Sunday we had a play date with Tere and Amanda's boys at Pinecrest Gardens. It was quite fun and quite hot. The kids spent some time running around in the playground then we headed over to the petting zoo. They had goats and pot-bellied pigs, one of which was quite antisocial and made grunting noises whenever we got near it. Christian had a great time feeding them and petting them on the butt as usual. After that the boys discovered that the drinking fountain was a bit off the mark when you pressed the button, so they made their own splash and play area to cool down.

Update on various Little Ones

The OB appointment went well yesterday except that I had a "full exam" that I wasn't expecting. I hate it when that happens cause I like to make preparations for those types of invasive exams. Little wiggly is doing great (HR 150-ish). I haven't felt any kicks/flutters yet, so (s)he's pretty well behaved. After 16 weeks the queasiness is finally gone. I was very lucky this time (and last time too) because the morning sickness was almost non-existent. The worst that I got was a car-sicky feeling whenever my stomach was empty which quickly went away whenever I ate.

I asked the doctor if I could ride the kiddie rides at the fair and she said that those were fine. I figure if it's gentle enough for a two year old, it can't be too bad right? And yes, THE FAIR is coming in two weeks and I can't wait. I'm salivating just thinking about all the yummy fair food.

I found out courtesy of bug guide that our little grassy friends from Monday are Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers. I need to stop touching (and letting Chris touch) little animals that I find out in the wild because those little guys seem to have "ample chemical defenses"...oops. I also saw these little parrots in the tree outside my office last week, but don't worry, I didn't try to touch those...I couldn't reach 'em.

Chris has an appointment for an abdominal ultrasound tomorrow. He's been poking his stomach and saying "stomach hurts" for almost a week now, so the doctor felt it was best to check him and see what the problem is. At first I thought it was a phrase he picked up at daycare, but he's been saying it for too many days now. It may or may not be related to whatever illness he had this week, so let's see.

Speaking of phrases from daycare, he definitely got this one there. Whenever he watches TV at home and a commercial for a toy (any toy, be it Barbies or My Little Pony, or Transformers) comes on he used to say "I want it". That was fine and dandy for a little while since he didn't really connect that you can find those things in a store and buy them. Lately though, he says "I like it...I want it...Find it mommy" and he goes into his playroom to look for said toy as if he has it already. Oh boy, this is only going to get worse huh?

Feverish times and ABC's

I haven't gotten much work done for the past 5 days because CMan had been sporting a runny nose/fever/vomiting spell on and off since Friday. A trip to the doctor on Monday revealed nothing concrete, so she had to order some blood work. Poor baby, I hate it when they order blood work. After the visit we stepped outside and discovered these cute little friends in the grass. They were all over the place and Chris was having a great time picking them up. I just had to make sure he didn't squeeze them too hard.

In other news, CMan surprised me by singing his ABC's in the car the other day. Since then, I've been trying to get him to do it on film, but every time he sees the camera he freaks out and wants to play with it instead of doing whatever he was doing. I finally got a little spy cam action going on, but I got busted at the end...check it out:



Amidst the fever spikes, he also managed to go #1 and #2 in the potty again on his own (before bath time). This time I had stickers on hand. Yay stickers. I bought a grab bag of small toys so I can give him one whenever he goes; hopefully those will be a bit more of an incentive since he's got lots of stickers already anyway.

At daycare they were focusing on colors last week, so he's learned his colors now too. Speaking of daycare, his fevers were gone yesterday and he should be ready to go back to daycare today, but R has the day off, so I think he's going to keep him home one more day just to be sure.

Last but not least, check out the drawing he did by himself the other day.

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In Little Wiggly news, I've got a doctor's apppointment today, so I'll let you know how that goes too.

Little snake little snake what do you see?

I see a lady taking pictures of me.





As I was walking to my car after work yesterday. I happened upon this little fellow. Fortunately, I had my camera with me (when don't I?) and was able to snap a couple of pictures before he got away. He was very scared of the towering human, so he hid under leaves and wiggled away. Upon further research, I found out that he is a Southern Ringnecked snake, non-venomous and rarely bites. Here's a website with more pictures so you can get an idea of his size. So cute.

I'm working on the answers for the truths/lies games; I haven't forgotten.

Halloween Ninja

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Target when I noticed these cute little "you've been booed" bags. They have candy in them and you're supposed to hang them on your neighbor's door (without them knowing who it's from) and then they're supposed give a treat to 2 or 3 more neighbors, etc. It's kind of like a Halloween chain letter (except with candy!). I, being the crafty thrifty type, decided I'd make my own, so I bought all the supplies and put them aside to make my boo bags. Unfortunately, I'm not only crafty, but a huge procrastinator, so the supplies just sat there until one night I came home and was interrogated by two of my neighbors.

Them: We're you the one with the bowl of candy?
Me: What?
Them: We found a bowl of candy on our porch. The neighbor over there got one too.
Me: Really? How cool, did it say that you're supposed to pass it on to another neighbor?
Them: Yes. So it wasn't you? We figured...of all people, it had to be you.
Me: No, no, it wasn't me, but whoever it was beat me to it because I was going to do that too. Ha ha! That's great!

How cool is that? I was so excited that the Halloween bug had bitten someone one in my neighborhood and that the spirit of the season was alive. I was a bit bummed that I didn't get a bowl of candy, but I figured I would get one soon enough and now I already had the treats to pass on! Woohoo!

That night I went out to run an errand. When I came back I found this on my porch!
How cool! I got a bowl! I got a bowl! As you can see, it had a glow necklace and some Halloween balls and some candy and a piece of paper with some writing on it. Oooooh Spoooooky! I pulled the paper out and read the instructions slowly and carefully. Wait! This wasn't a boo bag, this was a Phantom Ghost! (I'm such a sucker for these things). So that night I made my treat bags and strategized with Ren over which neighbors I would give them to.

This is the part where I started to freak out because you have to do it secretly so that they don't see you. I kept thinking what if they go outside at the exact moment when I'm putting the treat on their porch? After much hemming and hawing I finally decided to just give the treats to the two neighbors to the right of my house.

Under dark of night, I slowly crept past the next door neighbor's car and opened the screen porch door. It let out a squeak that almost made me turn back. I quietly snuck in and decided to put the treat bag on one of the chairs in their front porch. I couldn't bring myself to hang it from the door knob because I didn't want them to hear me. I ran out as fast as possible and headed over to the next house. Another neighbor was outside talking on her cell phone. I hadn't noticed I had a witness. This meant I had to be extra careful and extra quiet at the next house so that she wouldn't see me. I gingerly went to the next house and tiptoed past their cars. I figured this one would be even more difficult because although they didn't have a screened in porch, they did have a dog and you know those damn animals can smell you coming a mile away. So far so good, no dog barking. One step closer..another...another OH CRAP! These people have a motion sensitive flood light! BAM! The light went on and I looked like a deer caught in the headlights. The neighbor on the phone started laughing (I don't know if it was at me or at the conversation,but you know when something happens like that, you always think everything is about you). I kept walking towards the next house as if that was my plan all along. I wasn't going to this house...nooooo...I was going to the next house, yep. Alright folks, nothing to look at here. I have nothing in my hands, keep going about your business.

After the flood light freak out, I kept on walking towards the mail box to make it look like that's where I was originally headed to when I decided to cut through my neighbor's front yard. I didn't want the cell phone neighbor to know that I was the Phantom Ghost (sounds like a Scooby Doo episode). I checked my empty mailbox and then decided to just leave the other treat at the closest house (the one by the mailbox). I crept up to the front porch and opened the gate. Great, even squeakier than the first one. I held my breath and took light steps but unfortunately this porch didn't have any chairs on it. I didn't want to hang it on the door knob because I knew it would make noise so I propped it up against the window. It fell down. Fuck! I picked it up and put it there again and pressed it towards the screen. The screen made noise. Crap! This is taking too long. I left it on the window and backed out of there as quickly as possible. I decided to cut through the neighbor's yard again (you know for consistency). This time I walked past their tree and walked right into a spider web. Yech! I kept walking faster and faster towards home while peeling spider webs off my face and body. I really didn't want to get caught doing my Halloween ninja deeds. What kind of a Phantom Ghost gets caught? A sucky one, that's what kind.

I finally made it back to the safety and security of my front porch. The motion sensor light went on. I reached for my keys and noticed a giant spider on my arm. Aack! I must have been carrying it on me since I walked into it's web. I calmly flicked it off my arm, but it just came right back up. I flicked it again and it started floating right back up. It had a piece of web coming out of it's butt-web-factory and the other end of it was stuck on to me somewhere, so whenever I would flick it off, it would come right back up the web. This is the part where my calm demeanor vanishes. I frantically brushed my entire arm, my back, my butt, my legs, my stomach, my hair, my face. I was turning in circles and swatting all parts of my body while trying to hold the evil animal off at bay. I looked like a maniac doing the macarena. EHHHH MACARENA AHAI! I finally broke the spiderweb link of death and squashed him (I generally don't kill non-roach insects/bugs, but I was irate by this time).

I don't think I'm cut out for this under-dark-of-night-ninja crap.

Oh, and those neighbors never even passed the treats on to another neighbor. Fuckers.

Proof positive that going to the gym is bad for my health

I was walking to the gym this afternoon when I happend upon this fellow.

I'm glad that water bottle was there for a bit of scale. Otherwise I would have been forced to put my hand next to him...ha ha..I kid, I kid. Actually, I used the full zoom capacity of my camera. I was not about to go in for a closer shot of this lovely creature.














Note to self: Must discontinue gym usage, it is dangerous.

The Little Farmer

Yesterday we took Cman to the Little Farm. This was our first visit there and we had a wonderful time. They have a pumpkin patch, a petting zoo, pony rides, little play houses and a butterfly garden. Chris loved the pumpkins and kept saying "punkin" and trying to hug them and take a bite out of them. The petting zoo had one or more of the following: goat, sheep, PEEPS, turkey, chicken, bunny and pig. Cman kept trying to pet them on the business end and I was afraid that he would either get kicked or pooped on (or kicked and pooped on). His favorite animal was the bunny. He kept petting it and saying "Bum! Bum!" (he can say bunny now, but he sleeps with a rabbit that he named Bum back when he couldn't say bunny).

When it came time for the pony rides, I thought for sure that he would be scared of them. He doesn't even like to sit on the 3-horse-carousels in front of the grocery store...not even when they're OFF. I figured a real pony would be out of the question. But wouldn't you know it. He sat on the horsie like he's done it all his life. He held on to the saddle and was just relaxin on the ride. I walked next to the horse holding on to him in case he decided to jump off (mission abort!) because the horse was too scary, but nope...he was calm, cool and collected the whole time.

They also had some little play houses and Chris LOVES those, so he spent a good deal of time going in and out of them and closing the windows and opening the windows and closing the windows. Next, we headed over to the butterfly garden where there were so many pretty butterflies. They wouldn't land on us, but they did sit still on the branches sometimes, so you were able to touch them before they flew off. CMan loved running up and down the bridge and trying to grab the butterflies. I found some other nifty creatures there too.

Finally, as we were leaving the butterfly area we saw some of the other animals that lived at the farm and called it a day. Christian had a huge smile on his face and so did I. I definitely think we'll be going back there again (we only spent $5!).

On the ride back home I saw a pretty little country house (you hardly see this type of architecture down here) and I made Ren stop the car on the side of the road because I just had to take a picture of it. It was so cute. It had a plaque in front of it that said Lindgren House; It turns out that it's a historical home!

Toe-Biter

No, Christian hasn't picked up the habit of biting his (or our) toes yet.

Toe-Biter is the alias of the little fucker the curious bug that I found on Tuesday. His real name is the Giant Water Bug (well, his real bug name anyway because his real real name, I really don't know...it could be Pedro or Esteban or some other hispanic name, after all, we are in Miami...that is assuming it's a boy and not a girl in which case, her name is probably Lissette) and he/she is classified as a "true bug", so I guess the title of my post was correct. In my research I also found out that they DO fly, so I can't begin to tell you how glad I am that it didn't decide to take flight mid-picture and land on my face because that would have traumatized me for life. I also found out that they give nasty bites, so I am also glad that I didn't put my hand in the picture for scale.

On a separate and unrelated note, I have a question for the Miami folks (or for those familiar with Miami): If you had an out of town guest staying with you and you could only take them to three places in Miami, where would you take them? An additional tidbit of info to keep in mind before you answer is that the goal of this guest is to take (and be in) "the quintessential Miami picture". I will explain what this is all about later on.

Thanks for your help and watch out where you step with those open-toed shoes!

A bug's life

Can anyone tell me what this is? I saw it on my way to the office as I was returning from lunch. It was just sitting there on the wall and I said to Amanda "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?". She looked to see what I was pointing at and she was instantly 10 feet further away; I don't blame her. It looks like a giant roach. Gross!

I ran upstairs to get my camera from my office and let me tell you, I've never been more afraid to take a picture of something in my life. I thought for sure the thing was going to jump or fly on to me. Can you picture me running around and jumping up and down screaming "AAAAAIIIIEEEE!!! IT'S ON ME! IT'S ON ME! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!!!"?

Stop laughing. I didn't happen (thank God). I used the extra powerful zoom function on my camera (after all, that's what it's there for right? to take pictures of nasty bugs that you don't want to get too close to) so I could share my experience with you all.

I know I'm supposed to put something in the picture so that you can tell what size this thing is, but due to the aforementioned reasons, there was NO WAY I was going to put my hand close to this thing. Let's just say it was at least 3 inches long. URGH!

I'm looking it up on What's that bug, but I haven't had any luck so far.

In other non-bug news, I've got pictures from this weekend to post, but I'm super duper busy these days, so it may be a while.

Happy bug hunting!

Raptor rescue rangers

Ever since Cman made his appearance into this world, my poor doggies have become second class citizens in their own home. They don't have the run of the house, I hardly ever play with them and due to R's strange work schedule, they don't get taken out on walks as often. On Sunday, since R was home, I decided to take the puppies for a little walk by the lake so they could get some exercise and fresh air. Candy had a great time and didn't want to go back home, but I had to take her back so I could take Lucy out. Walking with both of them is a bad idea.

When it was Lucy's turn to go out she was going crazy running everywhere and dragging me at the end of the leash. When we made it to the lake I let Lucy run some laps around me (still on the leash because she is a crazy crazy untrained dog that should not be left to run loose outside) to tire her out. As we were doing this, I noticed a little birdie standing by this huge tree. I walked over so I could get a better look fully expecting it to fly away once it saw my dog. Oddly enough, we kept getting closer and closer and the bird wasn't going anywhere. I was standing three feet from it and was in total awe of how cute it was and how amazing that it hadn't flown away considering the crazy Jack Russell at the end of my leash (Lucy hadn't noticed it yet). That's when I got a good look at it and noticed that it was some type of eagle or hawk because it had one of those scary looking beaks that can rip a finger off. It was definitely a baby though because it was not afraid of me at all! I leaned over and talked to it and told it what a beautiful little baby it was and that it should fly away because a doggy might come by and eat it. Because I was not high (or crazy) the bird didn't talk back, but it did hop away when Lucy noticed it and tried to lunge at it. The birdie raised it's wings and opened it's jaw, but still no flying. I looked around to see if the big momma was anywhere around. I had been pecked by a protective momma bird once before and I didn't intend on having it happen again, by an eagle/hawk no less.

I grabbed Lucy and headed home where I proceeded to tell R about the baby bird that we just HAD to rescue because if it stayed there, a dog was going to eat it. He called the emergency animal clinic and they told us to bring it over. We grabbed a box, grabbed the camera, put Chris in the stroller and went back to the lake. I told R to bring a towel so he could catch the bird, but he didn't listen to me as he imagined the bird to be the size of a budgie I guess. As we walked to the place where I had seen the bird, my mom's neighbor ran into us and asked us if the box was for the hawk and we said "yes...is that what it is?". The birdie had moved from his spot and another lady was standing by it taking pictures. She was glad to see us coming with a box because she too felt that the bird would definitely get injured by a dog if it stayed there. As we approached the bird, R suddenly realized why I told him to bring a towel. The bird was the size of really large pigeon or a small barn owl. After seeing the beak on this baby, R was hesitant to approach him and grab him. He and the lady tried to scoop him into the box, but the bird was hanging on to the ground for dear life. I was keeping an eye out in the sky for the momma bird, I didn't want R to lose a chunk of hair from a sharp talon or two. I also found the nest where he had fallen from and it was very high up, I'm surprised it didn't break anything on the way down. With no angry momma in sight, they managed to get the bird in the box and we left immediately to the vet clinic.

At the clinic, they confirmed that it was a hawk. They told us that they would check it out for injuries and fix it up if necessary. So we were happy to hear this and we headed back home. Chris had just experienced his first animal rescue! In the car ride, Ren asked me if I wanted to name my bird and I said "yes, let's name him Tony". Ren said..."I don't get it"...I said "Tony?...Tony Hawk?". Yes, yes, I've got a million of em folks...I'll be here all week. Thank you.


Ren called the clinic yesterday and they said that Tony [the] Hawk was fine, the only thing wrong with him was that he had mites. They reiterated that it was good that we had brought him in, otherwise, he probably would have gotten injured by another animal. They took him to a wildlife sanctuary where he will now be able to learn how to fly in peace. Yay!