Baby Elephant!

Does Rush look hot and sweaty here, yet also like he's having an awesome time and seeing all kinds of new and exciting things? It's probably because he's at the zoo.


It's the in-between week. All of a sudden it became too hot to stand around a playground (apparently 92 is the magic temperature) and the pool doesn't open until this weekend. So I was having a little bit of a we-have-nothing-to-do-this-week crisis until I remembered that we have an annual pass to the zoo. Yea!

That turned out to be the best investment ever, because instead of moping around the house all week, I filled our water bottles and made some sandwiches and Rush and I set out on a vacation-like adventure. And it was free. I do understand that at one point we paid for our zoo membership, but that's in the past. Our day yesterday: free.

Looking a little zoned? It was hot. But it was so worth it, because we saw the most adorable addition to the Houston Zoo...the new baby elephant! So tiny! So fuzzy! SO CUTE. In the picture he's standing next to his mother, with his grandma standing behind them. He was born earlier this month and has only recently been out and about at the zoo.

Rush and I were able to drag ourselves away from the elephants and spend some time in the children's area. Rush had his first petting zoo experience, which didn't impress him as much as I thought it would. I think it's because the goats felt exactly like Mel, Uncle Hunter's dog and Rush's best canine friend and relative.

I realized that the additional benefit of the annual pass is that I didn't feel obligated to see every single animal and stay all day. We were home for nap time. As for all the animals we didn't see yesterday, we'll be back to visit you soon.

Pig/Wolf

Way back in April I said I wasn't going to buy any craft supplies for a month in honor of Earth Day and to try to focus on using my stash. The result:

It's Pig/Wolf, two stuffed animals in one. I made it from a pattern (yes, I used a pattern!) by Lizette Greco, who designs her creations based on drawings made by her children. She also has another creation that I love called the See-Through Predator which is a wolf with a mesh belly with a zipper, so you can make little pigs and people to save or let the wolf digest as you see fit. Making the pig/wolf took a long time to finish because it has a zillion pieces, so I think I'm done with stuffed animals for awhile.

I did cheat once on my April vow by buying one piece of white felt from Michaels. I had everything else for the project, adapting the pattern to use what I had, even cutting up a too small shirt for the green and white fabric. I tried to substitute something else for the white felt, but I just couldn't make it work. Making the pig/wolf was fun for me, but Rush is not in the least bit interested in the finished project.

Beaumont Weekend

We spent the weekend in Beaumont visitng Trent's family. It was a nice trip, complete with fried shrimp and hush puppies on Saturday night, which Rush helped set up on Saturday afternoon. He's reading the directions to make sure the propane cooker gets set up properly. The food was excellent and made it possible for me to eat cold hush puppies the next day, which is always a treat. They're just savory donut holes and eating them cold really brings out the flavor. And solidifies the grease, but let's not think about that.

Rush also enjoyed playing in the pool. It took awhile to figure out how to set it up, because who would have thought that you filled the sides with water instead of air? You can't really tell from the picture, but water sprays up through holes on the sides. The spraying water was a little overwhelming at first, but he had a good time splashing around.

Even with all the money in the world you can't buy the best toy ever: a great-grandmother. Clearly Rush's favorite part of the visit was playing with Trent's grandmother and a stack of red paper plates he found in a cabinet. He wouldn't accept anyone else as a substitute. His aunts and grandparents did there best to lure him with treats and toys, but his great-grandma was the big winner in entertaining Rush this weekend.

Trent and I didn't squeeze in our usual Beaumont movie date because it's the in-between stage before the summer blockbusters come out. We'll make sure to visit when the next Harry Potter hits theaters, which according to mugglenet is November 19. That's a long wait, but don't worry grandparents, I'm sure we'll be visiting again before that.

P-Jams

It's been an uneventful week but I wanted to post something because I know Hunter gets disappointed if I go too long between updates. Thanks for being loyal Hunt. A good example of our week would be pictures of baskets of unfolded laundry, so instead I'm just sharing the general cuteness we see every night: Rush in pajamas. I love little kid pjs with their head to toe animal patterns.


He's flipping through the picture book I made for him out of an index card book and pictures cut out of magazines. It's a book made by a feminist, clearly constructed to help create a well rounded human being. "Look Rush, here's a picture of a man setting the dinner table. And here's a picture of a boy playing soccer and here's a boy reading a book." Luckily I had the TIME from the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, so there are plenty of astronaut pictures as well. "And here's Alan Bean, the fourth person to walk on the moon..."

And speaking of astronauts, did anyone else besides me watch the 30 Rock with Buzz Aldrin as a guest star? I was laughing so hard that I couldn't breathe and we had to stop the show and rewind it because I missed like 15 minutes while I was in hysterics. If you haven't seen it, it's on hulu, the episode is called The Moms, and I highly recommend it.

Ma Cher Amio

In an effort to start a Julie and Julia-esque cooking spree through The Encyclopedia of Cajun & Creole Cuisine (which Trent has never mentioned, but I'm pretty sure is somewhere in the back of his mind), Trent cooked up a Cajun feast on Sunday night. He has been lusting after the cookbook for years, so finally receiving it for Christmas last year was hopefully the beginning of a new meuniere sauce filled stage of life. He set off on a Hank Williams inspired meal.

The man is serious about cooking from scratch. He made homemade french bread, skipping the encyclopedia's recipe which called for vital wheat gluten among other ingredients we didn't have, and instead used Maree Calcote's recipe. In Trent's eyes she gets her credibility from growing up in Natchitoches, LA; otherwise I'm sure he would have been scouring the Pearland HEB for specialty flours.















The french bread was just an accompaniment to jambalaya and crawfish pie, but no file gumbo this time. I mean seriously, let's not overdo it. Crawfish pie proved to be incredibly rich and delicious. The homemade jambalaya was also quite good and I can tell Trent's going to be making this anytime he has a real meat and rice craving as it called for chicken and sausage and pork.

I made my part of the meal, dessert, on Saturday, leaving me free to lounge about on Sunday while Trent chopped vegetables. We finished off the meal with Dolly's lemon squares, which I consider Cajun because they were always made by my mom's friend Dolly who lived in Baton Rouge. Of course we ended up with no pictures of our friends over at our house sitting on the back porch drinking beer or having big fun on the bayou, but hopefully there will be many more nights of Trent's Cajun cooking.

We'll have to wait and see if the quest to make all the recipes in the book ever starts to happen. Julie may have had to make a few aspics and cook a live lobster, but did she make Smothered Nutria (p.572) or Squirrel Jambalaya (p.566)? Not likely. If those recpies ever make it into our kitchen, let's just hope they're followed by Chocolate and Clover Honey Ice Cream (p. 621). I could enjoy a bowl of that right now.

We're Walking, We're Walking...

It's true!
Rush is still learning and not walking all the time by himself, but each day he's taking more steps. I can tell he's proud, smiling and laughing as he goes. Plus, he'll walk almost anywhere now if he's holding on to one of my fingers.

Each stage with Rush has been better than the last. I'm a little surprised by how many people have said "oh, you don't want him walking" just like people said "oh, when he starts crawling, it's all over." People I don't even know will say this, right in the middle of an innocent conversation at the grocery store. In fact, I do want him walking. He likes it. He likes exploring and moving around.

There are trade-offs with every new stage. Sure, when Rush could only sit up but not crawl or walk I wasn't ever chasing him around. But I was breast-feeding seven times a day. And do you know what the attention span of a 7 month old baby is? About 40 seconds. So it's not like he was totally content to sit on a blanket for any reasonable amount of time. The more he can move, the more he can entertain himself.

So I am really excited about Rush moving on to the next stage. We will hopefully have a little more time on the playground before the truly oppressive heat sets in, plus the pool opens in a few weeks. Rush will be everywhere and I'll be chasing him. And really, he's been everywhere and I've been chasing him for quite some time now.

It's going to be a great summer.

Beach Baby

We made a post-Florida stop at Crystal Beach last weekend, a way to ease us back into our regular lives. We pulled out a wagon full of beach toys that Rush received as a gift when he was born. At the time it seemed like it would be years before he would be big enough to play with them, yet just a year later, here we are.

More Vacation

Rush knows how to work a pair of water shoes.

Our hotel had a fantastic kids' pool. We stayed at a Holiday Inn, which is arguably the most unreliable hotel chain in the country, but the Holiday Inn Main Gate East in Kissimmee was a winner. Our room overlooked the pools and hot tub and there was a playground, so we're definitely staying here again. Rush had to check out the window every morning to see what was happening outside.

Those cheeks!

These gigantic bats were one of my favorite parts of Animal Kingdom. Not only were they huge, there were a lot of them, all hanging from trees and ropes along one of the trails.

The number of strollers in the park was incredible. Somehow we never had trouble finding ours. I love having a stroller; you can bring all kinds of things but you don't have to actually carry any of it.

After a long day at Typhoon Lagoon, Rush grabs a nap on the way back to the hotel. What a great little traveller he is.

Ah, Disney World

How do I even begin to describe the trip that is already one of the best vacations we have ever taken? Maybe I should start with the fact that Rush actually did take his first steps on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom while waiting for the parade. He may look like Trent, but he was my mini-me on this trip, getting up early and staying up late, opening and closing the parks, and generally showing me that he's going to be happy coming back to Disney World again and again.



Rush proved to be an awesome traveller. He really didn't sleep very much during the trip, but just as SpectroMagic started he fell asleep. It was the sweetest moment with the parade passing by and Rush snoozing away.

I know there are all different type of trips: visiting a new city, relaxing on a beach, enjoying nature. But there's just something about carrying an inner tube up a hot concrete slope to the top of a waterslide that just is vacation for me. We had the perfect day at Typhoon Lagoon where it was crowded but we didn't have to wait in any lines for waterslides or for tubes in the lazy river. Plus we arrived as the park opened so we had a prime spot in the kids area, which we think was the highlight of Rush's trip.


I love being hot and sweaty and covered in sunscreen, full of french fries and ice cream and heading to the next ride. Thank you Walt Disney for creating a place where the sole purpose is to have fun. Thanks to my employment history with Disney, I know the effort that goes into creating the "magical guest experience" and I love every minute that I get to enjoy it.


Rush really got into vacation mode. That's a donut hole clenched in his fist. Where else but vacation can you lay in bed and eat Munchkins at 2 o'clock in the afternoon? (For the record, we did make him sit up to eat, even though he kept laying down and laying down and laying down.)

In addition to his first visit to DisneyWorld, Rush also had his first taste of Flippers, possibly the best pizza I have ever eaten and a staple of any trip to central Florida.

There were just so many great moments on the trip; I'll try to post more of them. We've been home less than 24 hours, but I'm ready to go back. I was flipping through a brochure in the hotel and discovered that Disney's Main Street Electrical Parade is going to be in the park for the summer. It hasn't been in Florida since 2000, it's only staying June through August, and it's quite possibly my very favorite part of Disney World. So can we fit in another trip this summer?