zoo again, new friend, and the park

The past couple of days have been pretty fun. Yesterday we went to the zoo with my friend Shannon and her two kids, Eli and Katie. It was the first nice day in a while so we decided to take advantage of it. Spencer and Andrew hadn't seen Eli or Katie in a while so at first they were being really shy but by the end of the day they were baby communicating a little more. The zoo was fun. Spencer was super excited to go...the feet stomping and the hand clapping proved it when I told him where we were going. The funnest part for me was seeing the gorillas get fed. The workers stand on top of a building and throw vegetables and fruit down to the 3 gorillas. The gorillas come from wherever they are to eat. One got really close to the glass and put his bum right on the glass. I'm sure glad we got to look at that! It was interesting though seeing them eat. At the gorilla exhibit too, we met a zoo nazi. He wasn't even a zoo worker and very bluntly reminded Shannon that there were no strollers in the exhibit. Shannon had Katie, who is 6 months old, in the stroller and trying to keep up with Eli, who is a very active 2 year old, and I don't think it was that big of a deal that she bring her stroller in there. It wasn't like the room was overly crowded. When we got in the room though, there the guy was perched up right almost on top of the glass in front of all the kids to watch the gorillas get fed. What a nerd. After we finished looking at all the animals we could look at except the rainforest and the birdhouse...we went to go eat lunch. We tried one Chickfila but the parking lot was full, the inside was full, the drive thru was full...so I pulled over and asked Shannon if it was okay if we went to the Chickfila in the mall...maybe it would be less crowded. I don't do too well in a large crowd with two hungry babies...and they don't either. So we headed over to the mall and it was much better. Shannon had to leave after we ate to run some errands so I just walked around for a little while until the boys got fussy...my cue to get out of there. Shaun says he trains them to fuss when I go shopping so I don't spend money. Anyways...that outing was fun.

Here's a couple of pictures of Katie and Eli for those of you who haven't seen them in a while.





After the shopping we started home and the boys feel asleep in the car. I had to come home and get something to take over to my friend Melinda's house and they were sleeping still when I arrived at the house, so I left them in the car for a few minutes, and off we went to her house. Spencer I think enjoys being around older kids better...he warmed up to Melinda's boys Ethan and DJ really quick. Maybe because they could get him what he wanted...some of their hot wheels cars out of a box. Both Spencer and Andrew enjoyed playing with them. When we started to leave, her boys gave my boys a hot wheels car and a little fire truck and you would have thought they had given them gold. Spencer kept on telling me "fire truck...fire truck" and had a huge smile on his face. I could tell Andrew was excited too about the fire truck the way he grinned and kicked his legs.

After we left Melinda's, we came home once again and Mom pulled up right afterwards. We stayed outside for a good little while. Right before Mom got here, we started outside and there was a white dog sitting right in front of our door. It almost looked like a beagle and had a red collar on but no tags. Spencer got so excited and started to pet him right away. The dog stayed around the house for a while. We got him a bowl of water and everytime the dog would go behind the house or in our neighbor's yard, Spencer would start yelling out , "here pup pup". He liked the dog a lot.
When Shaun got home we ran a couple of errands and about 8:30 Mom called and said the dog was sitting outside her back door whining. She said she really didn't have anything to feed him...we were almost home and I told her I would feed him some bread when we got home. And we did...and then he ran off after he ate it. We haven't seen him since. Maybe he found his home. Sometimes I think I would like a dog for outside but then again...we have enough responsibilities right now. Maybe down the road we can get one.

Today we met Jenny and Oscar at the park for lunch. She went by and got Papa John's pizza and it was sooo good. She even brought a blanket and everything so we had our little picnic on the grass. Spencer was more interested in Oscar than playing on the equipment. He wouldn't slide down the slide. He just sat or stood on the stairs and watched all the other kids play. He didn't want to swing either. I think his favorite part was helping Jenny "walk" Oscar around the park. Andrew sure enjoyed swinging though. He just smiled the whole time. After we left the park I had to get a couple of things at Walmart...what's new... so we went by there and they were doing tons of remodeling. The aisles were super close together...only enough room for one cart...so we didn't get too much shopping done...especially when there's not enough room in the cart for hardly anything with two kids. Last time I went shopping in Walmart with the boys I was buying some of the cheapo drink pitchers for Jenny and they had eight plastic cups on the inside. I thought Spencer could just sit there and not touch them...but no...he had to take all of the cups out of each of the 3 pitchers and pinch each one so they had a crease in them. I had to buy them anyways. So when I'm by myself with the boys...I try not to get anything that could be damaged. One of the sections in Walmart they were arranging were the battery-powered ride on toys. They had all of them on the floor where kids could get on them...and boy did Spencer pitch a fit to take his turn on one. I didn't think it would do any harm to let him have a little bit of enjoyment so I let him out of the cart. I saw my Grandmother in Walmart...so she was also the instigator in getting him out of the cart..."it won't hurt him to play on the toys..." He had a fun time for about 30 minutes and I didn't mind letting him play because we really didn't have anything to do this afternoon. But when I was ready to go...he definitely was not. But I was stern in that we needed to go. I put him in the cart and he cried like the dogs had him until we left the building. Ahhhh...the joys and sounds of being a mother. It's all good...we went down this one aisle on the way out and this older lady looked as if she was deafened by Spencer's cry...I couldn't help it. In situations like that I guess you just have to stick to your guns that it's time to go and laugh about it later that you got so many stares going out of Walmart.

Oh well...that's about it. I hope y'all don't get bored at how much I write. Some days are a little more interesting than others. But anyways...if I don't write before the weekend...have a great one everybody! Shaun's off tomorrow so maybe we can get some more work out of him :)