Day at the zoo

We made it to Houston safely, and are halfway through our visit. We have a full weekend planned of visiting old friends, and most importantly enjoying the warm weather while we can. I gladly put on shorts and flip-flops this morning, and it took a few minutes before my toes remembered what flip-flops felt like.

We decided to go to the zoo this morning, so Natalie could run around a little bit and get to see some exotic animals. She was a very big fan of the tropical birds and monkeys. Here is her posing with a monkey:



This next picture is a little more "National Geographic"esk, but I really wanted to include it. Natalie didn't know what to think of one monkey searching for bugs on another monkey's tail and then eating them:



Natalie made sure to wear her sunglasses to protect her eyes from damaging UV rays, or I guess to look stylish. Although the sun wasn't out much of the time, but the humidity DEFINITELY was. I am glad that we went early, because by the time we left it was getting a little too hot.



Towards the end of our visit to the zoo, we took Natalie to the petting area, or should I say the "brushing area." They have little brushes that you can use, and Natalie took to the brushing, more than the petting. She selected a few goats to give 1 stroke each as she made her way through the fenced in area. I was lucky enough to catch her in the act with one goat:



We finished up our visit with a ride on the carousel, but Natalie was too afraid of the various animals you could ride on. Instead, she opted for the comfortable spot next to G-Ma. It looks like they both enjoyed her choice:



Landon

Happy Easter

Nothing says 'Easter' than the excitement of finding hidden candy and then getting to eat it in your Church clothes!

For the first time in her life, Natalie got to experience Easter on all levels. She got to do the typical Easter egg hunt at Church (link to the pictures below), she got an Easter basket on Sunday morning, and then look for more eggs in our living room. We didn't want to hide eggs in the yard because it is still too cold outside. I can't explain to you how much we are looking forward to warmer weather!!

Since it is a few days after Easter, I am happy to say that Natalie is still finding candy in our living room. If we are in the kitchen, and she is playing in the living room, we know that if it gets a little "too quiet" that we need to check on her. On several occasions now, she has a mouthful of candy that she hid somewhere in our living room. It is so hard to keep from laughing with her mouth full or chocolate or with her tongue colored blue from jellybeans. I think she has found all the candy now, so we are good to go until Halloween comes around.

Natalie has added a few more words to her vocabulary recently. If you ask her a question now, her typical response is "ooookkaaaaay." "Natalie, do you want to go for a walk?" "Ooookkaaaayy!" "Natalie, do you want to go to the store?" "Ooookkaaaayy!"

She has also become more vocal with things she does not like. For example, when we are dressing her in something that she doesn't want to wear, she will throw a fit, and keep saying, "NO LIKE IT, NO LIKE IT, NO LIKE IT." I guess this is all part of "the terrible two's."

One really sweet thing she did today that I think Kristin really enjoyed was while we were hanging pictures in my office. We got to a picture of Kristin on our wedding day which I kept on my desk, and Natalie took it. Kristin asked Natalie who it was, and Natalie said, "Mommy Princess, Mommy Princess."

I have put up more pictures from the past week online, check out the following link: Link to all the pictures

We leave for Houston tomorrow morning for about a week. Hopefully I can post while we are there.

Landon

The Franklin Institute

Since I have been traveling so much lately, I wanted to do something special with Natalie and give Kristin a little time to herself to recharge. I have heard so many good things about the Philadelphia Children's Museum ever since we moved here. I thought it might be fun to take Natalie downtown to the Museum this Saturday. So I grabbed the GPS and headed downtown!

When I got downtown, the streets were packed, and I couldn't find a place to park near the Museum. I drove around the block a few times, but it didn't get any better. Plus, it was POURING outside, so I didn't want to park too far away. I finally found a parking garage for the Franklin Institute, which is another Museum in the area, but geared more towards older kids.

As I was pulling into the garage, I read the parking rates. It would cost $25 for 2 hours of parking (are you kidding me??), and of course, it was too late for me to turn around. As we were taking the elevator down to the street-level I overheard two other people in the elevator talking about how they got their parking ticket validated at the Franklin Institute. Right then, I decided we should try out the Franklin Institute today, and we can come back on another day and try the other Museum (plus I think Kristin wants to go with us to the other one too).

Natalie and I placed membership, and we are off...the first stop was the Children's exhibit, and Natalie played with some blocks. (please excuse the quality of these pics, they were taken on my camera phone)



The next stop was the cardio room. Natalie got to spin a few wheels to pump blood through the body (I think she just liked spinning the wheels).



She was also a big fan of crawling through the large veins (again, I think she just liked crawling through tubes).



We then went to the weather section, and Natalie tried to control the weather in North America (again, I think she just liked pushing the buttons and moving the joystick).



The last picture is Natalie playing on a mat that lights up and tracks your movement (by this time, I think Natalie was just enjoying running around in an open space with other kids).



Overall, we had a blast! Most of the exhibits are a little above her knowledge capability, but she did enjoy getting her hands on so many different things, even if she didn't understand it all.

Landon

Bedtime Video

A few days ago Kristin and I made a few videos of Natalie before bed. She has become very fond of the alphabet, and likes to tell us what specific letters are.

Even tonight, as we were putting her to bed, she pointed to her bookshelf and said "me want read, me want read" in her half talk, half crying voice. What parent wouldn't read a book to her after that?! So, we read her a book and then she wanted to sleep with the book.

I hope you enjoy the video...

A few pictures

Well, the last few weeks have been extremely busy for us. I have been through more winter storms that I can count while traveling for business. I have had completely cancelled flights in Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago in the last two weeks, and you just know that I was the only one that needed to get on another flight (yah right!). I am convinced that airlines cancel flights when it is convenient for them to do so, and not when it is physically impossible for them to fly. For instance, I had a customer service rep with United tell me that no airline was flying to Rochester when my flight from Chicago to Rochester was cancelled due to "weather". I told him that I just saw a flight leave 5 minutes ago for Rochester. He acted shocked, and wanted to know what airline...I said, "oh, this little one, right over there (pointing to the gate), UNITED!!!" Needless to say, he dropped this issue, but it didn't solve my problem as I had to get a hotel in Chicago, cancel my meeting in Rochester, and fly to Buffalo the next morning for another meeting. So if anyone wants to know about a specific airline, or airport, especially in the Northeast, I can hook you up.

With all those traveling problems being said, it is such a joy to come home to Kristin and Natalie. I do get to hear all of the stories while I am on the road, but nothing can replace experiencing them for yourself.

For instance, the day after I got back from a week long trip, I had to go out and shovel snow off our driveway and sidewalk. Of course, Natalie wanted to participate. So there we were, two partners in crime, shoveling snow. Natalie kept falling down in her large pink snow suit. It reminded me of the snow suits in "The Christmas Story."

Once we got done shoveling snow, Natalie talked me practicing our golf swings with snow balls. I have a short 7 iron that my dad gave me when I was a kid, and so that is Natalie's to play with. My weapon of choice was a 2 iron my grandad gave me years ago. I figure I can practice on snow with the 2 iron because I am never going to be able to hit a real golf ball with it (for non-golfers, hitting a 2 iron is typically reserved for the Tiger Woods of this world).



The next two pictures were taken while I was not at home. Kristin called me to tell me that Natalie had sat down with her baby doll and was rocking her and singing "Jesus Loves Me" to her. Even though I wasn't there, I find it amazing how she decided to do this on her own. Natalie definitely has a mind of her own these days, and I am glad that that little mind is starting to know Jesus. Even if it is just a small moment in time, and a simple song, it still makes a father proud.



After she got done playing with her doll, she pulled up her sun glasses and struck a pose for Kristin.



Sorry for the delay in posting....

We miss everyone!

Landon