Family Outing

On Saturday, we took advantage of the fleeting beautiful spring weather and went to the zoo. It was great!

We saw goats - because everyone knows when you go to a zoo, you want to see the rare and exotic goats...

who were possibly tranquilized (no, not really).

Harper liked them, even if she was a little timid at first.

These little meerkats are probably my favorite animals at the zoo. They're cute and inquisitive and I like that Harper thinks they look like our cat, Sage.

And, they're much nicer than these rude little lemurs who wouldn't even turn around to say hi to us. Whatever.

We also saw some lazy zebras

and a couple rather imposing looking ostriches.

And then there was this guy, who thought he was pretty tough because he could carry a tree trunk around like it was no big deal.

All in all, it was a great day. I'm sure we'll be going back quite a few times this summer.

Congrats, Rob!

Last night, my husband received an award from the police department. He was given a Metropolitan Police Department Chief's Coin in recognition for going above and beyond the call of duty. Something about catching 5 armed robbers at one time. You'll have to ask him about it. Doesn't sound like a big deal to me, but what do I know:)

Basketball, Harper, Science, and Classical Music -- One Stop Shopping

Just a bunch of random thoughts for today.

1. I'm looking forward to the NCAA basketball tournament this year. Ohio State looks good (although I don't have them going all the way). Should be fun to watch.

2. Harper is becoming quite the backseat driver. While we're driving, she will point in a particular direction and say "Mommy, that way." She gets ticked if we don't go the direction she suggested.

3. I took this picture at work the other day. It's of a blood vessel (red) surrounded by some omentum tissue (yellow). The way that the vessel is folded in on itself is a little unusual. I think it looks cool.

4. I like classical music. This particular piece has been in my head lately. It's a tuba concerto (I know, hard to believe). It's by one of my all time favorite composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams. You can listen to the 2nd movement of the concerto here. I'll bet that you've never heard a tuba played like this before (and this recording isn't even that great - it's just the best one I could find on youtube).

Happy St. Patrick's Day, Kind Of

Uggggg! Totally did not set my alarm last night and overslept this morning. Not a huge deal because I have an awesome job where I don't have a particular time that I have to be there in the morning. But still, my morning routine was obliterated. I am a creature of habit and when my habits are disrupted, I am disrupted. Luckily, I have a cool baby that puts things in perspective and sings songs to me in the car to brighten my day.

On a completely unrelated note... Does anyone else remember Shamrock Shakes from McDonalds? Why can't you get them anymore? They totally rocked! I did a quick google search and found this website that is devoted to helping people locate the rare establishment that still serves them. Sadly, none in my area. Oh well.

Car Talk

I know the blogging has been sporadic lately. I'll do better. I promise. To make it up to you, here's a cute video of Harper. We had a few minutes to kill last night, so I pulled the camera out and attempted to have a conversation with her. As you will see, it was more singing than conversing, but oh well. We also practiced some new words.

Harperisms

A couple (mostly Harper related) things for today:

• Harper is in this phase where she wants to know the name for everything. So, she walks around pointing at things and saying "Mommy, name?" It's cute and I'm glad that she's inquisitive, but after the 1 millionth time, it's slightly less cute.
• Keeping in mind the above bullet point... if Harper wants my attention and doesn't get it right away she will call my name and then click her tongue (ie. Mom, Mommy, Mom, click, Moooooommy). I have no idea where she picked that one up. It's great. Let me tell you.
• Harper is starting to talk about monsters these days. At first, she would just hold her baby dolls and tell me they were sad because of monsters. Now, she's starting to be afraid of them. She doesn't want to be the first person to walk into a room, especially if the light is off. I've explained to her that there are no monsters in our house, but she's not buying it. So last night I told her that 1. there are no monsters and 2. if she ever feels scared, she can ask Jesus to help her. This morning, she walked around the house saying "Jesus help me!" and when we pulled out of the driveway she said "Bye monsters. Bye Jesus." Baby steps, right?
• Harper's birthday was a good 3 weeks ago. But every day since then, she has sung happy birthday to herself.
• Finally these are popping up. Thank goodness. I was beginning to lose hope.

Good People Doing A Good Thing

Some of you know my friends Ryan and Allison. Right now, they are in Kenya on a Compassion International mission trip. They are blogging about what they see and experience there. If you get a minute, check out their post from yesterday (actually check out all of their posts, but especially the one from yesterday). Click here to read it.