Monkeying Around

Last weekend (Feb 19-20) my parents came to visit us (ok, to visit Keely) and we decided to finally check out the Knoxville Zoo. We'd been meaning to go and get a season pass since it gives Keely and I another good place to visit during the week and their indoor play zone will be nice this summer. We had a really nice time, even though we didn't get to see everything. Keely eventually was getting sleepy fussy. I was very impressed with the way the zoo seemed set up for young children, where at almost every exhibit Keely could stand on the ground and see everything. I also learned to not take a stroller since Keely only wanted to push it around. Which would work if she was tall enough to see over it. I thought I'd share a few pictures!

Ode to My Valentine

Ok this is neither a song nor an epic poem, but I thought it made a cute title.
  I just wanted to take some time today to talk about the man who will be my valentine for the rest of my life, Daniel. (Warning, this is likely to get sappy.) I knew I was lucky to have him, but the past 2-3 years have really proven it to me again and again. First, following the car accident Daniel took such good care of me, making a pretty terrible time a lot easier. He let me cry on him and complain and was absolutely my rock. That experience helped me know he would be a great dad and I would never need to worry about him taking care of our kids.
  And that brings me to the second point of how lucky I am. So many of my mommy friends worry about leaving their kids home with their husbands, are worried that they "can't handle it".  I never worry about Daniel taking care of Keely.  Maybe its because I know from experience what a good caretaker he is, maybe its because he kept her that week when I went back to finish the school year out when she was only 5 weeks old. I don't know, but I DO know I am super blessed to have this man and father for my children.

Toy Story

Toy Story was playing on the Disney channel tonight so I put it on after dinner and Keely watched the entire movie. Now she didn't actually sit still the entire time and she occasionally played with her toys while watching, but she seemed to actually be following the movie and enjoying it. At one point she told us 'pretty song', and at another she got a bit upset because of the tense music, though thankfully it didn't last long. Seems like a big step to me! I can't wait to share my childhood favorites with her like Beauty and the Beast and Newsies! (yeah shut up. I loved it!)

NOT NICE

For a few days Keely has been telling us "diaper hurty". We tried giving her juice first to see if it was constipation, then we made sure it wasn't a diaper rash. Yesterday she started really crying and saying it when I'm almost certain she was peeing so I made a doctor appointment, expecting to find that she had a UTI. We went in today (missing the V-day party with our friends) and they had to use a catheter to get a urine sample. Keely started crying as soon as we went into the room, I think she remembered the shots from our last visit? She really screamed at the nurses throughout the prep and procedure, at one point yelling at them 'not nice!', which almost made me laugh despite it all. How do you handle it when your baby, who you promise to protect, is crying and looking at you with those why-are-you-letting-them-hurt-me-like-this eyes? I know it was necessary, but she doesn't understand that.
 And the urine sample was fine. Doc thinks its constipation and told us to try some miralax. Hopefully we'll at least be able to make her stop hurting when she goes potty.

Llama Llama Mad at Mama

I don't remember who bought this book for Keely but she loves it. (If it was you, THANKS!) The sing-song rhythm makes her happy. She's recently started reading the book to me, her dolls, the wall if she has to.  Mostly its just 'mama mama' with a few other words thrown in, seat, cat, and Eli. I have no idea why on the Eli, maybe llama llama looks like Eli to her? Anyway, enjoy!

How can you say no to that??

      Last night Daniel and I were talking about me finding an OB/GYN in the area. No, I'm not pregnant, but I've been trying to pick one. I was mentioning that I was probably going with a male for the first time ever and Keely said "Check the mail??" Checking the mail is Keely's recent hobby, we just hadn't done it because it was so cold out! Well Daniel and I thought how could you say no to Keely asking so adorably? So shoes and coat went on, and out they went!

Weekend Adventures

This is a bit late, and a story entirely devoid of Keely, so I apologize!

One of my two best friends, Julie, left on Monday with her husband to travel to Ukraine to adopt their second son, Vladik. (post on your blog so I know you got there safe PLEASE!) They felt a bit bad about leaving both of their dogs with Julie's parents (who are also taking care of Jackson) for the 3 weeks that Keith will be in Ukraine, so I offered to keep their female dog, Shirley. Shirley has stayed with us before and she loves Jake so we thought it would be fine.
  On Friday, Julie and I met each other for dinner and to do the dog swap in Ringgold, GA (its almost exactly in the center). We had a great dinner and Julie only got a bit sad when she put Shirley in my car and said goodbye. The drive home was uneventful, I pulled into the driveway and opened the garage and then the car door. We hadn't used a leash to transfer Shirley at Ruby Tuesday's so I didn't bother at home. Shirley ran after me into the garage to the back door, but then Hershey barked and Shirley took off. At first she just ran to the end of the neighborhood and we thought she was doing the same things our dogs would do...checking out the surroundings. When she stopped to pee, I approached her and she took off out of the neighborhood!
  Now if you've ever seen where we live you know there are a million streets near our house and several small patches of woods. I got in the car and tried to find her for 30 minutes, then finally called Julie and told her. She immediately said "We'll all get in the car and be there in 3 hours. She'll come when she hears my voice." I found out afterwards we both bawled on our husbands after that call. For the next 2 hours I drove around and around, exchanging texts with Julie and getting more and more hopeless. I was sure Julie was wasting her time coming up.
    Finally I spotted Shirley, but as soon as I hopped out of the car and approached her she took off. I spent the next hour stalking the dog, seeing her about 4 more times, all in a relatively small area.  The last 20 minutes I parked in front of some apartments and just watched Shirley, knowing if I approached her she'd take off but wanting to keep close to her.  As soon as Julie's family pulled up and Julie got out, Shirley ran right up to her. I'm pretty sure she knew EXACTLY what she was doing with her little stunt.
Shirley and I are no longer friends!