A "Fire hose" for Luis!

Luis can spot someone using a hose from a block away. He recently noticed that our across-the-street-neighbors had a very cool hose attachment that made it like a low-pressure washer; though Luis thought it made the hose much more like a fireman's hose. Dave, the neighbor, very kindly allowed Luis to spray all of the plants, the concrete, both cars and most of his house with this "fireman's hose" before I wrangled Luis back across the street.

On his next trip to Home Depot, Diego picked up the $2 attachment for our hose and presented it to Luis, who then spent close to 45 minutes "putting out fires" in our back yard. Not the most conservative use of water, I'm afraid, but it did result in one EXTREMELY happy boy!

Zoo Trip!

There is a new exhibit at the zoo, Giants of the Savannah, that JUST opened. We went this morning for a quick trip to see this new area. We knew it was going to be hot, so we went early. Unfortunately, we'd have had to be there at 4a to arrive before the heat.

This new exhibit is towards the back of the zoo, meaning that we had to walk past lots of OTHER exhibits to get there. Exhibits that Luis was also interested in seeing. Exhibits that were distracting us from our mission. Exhibits that wasted precious minutes as the mercury was sky-rocketing.

By the time we got to the "main event", Diego, Luis and I were all sweating profusely and were all slightly annoyed (Luis that he kept getting dragged away from the thing he was looking at and D & me for having to drag). But it was worth it! The exhibit was fantastic!! We saw lions, cheetah's, giraffes, gazelle, zebra, and ostrich!

I was about to melt and in desperate need of a bathroom, and wondered in to one of the places that sells food. It turns out that this restaurant abuts the lion enclosure. I quickly discovered that 5 of the lions were lying up against the glass wall of the restaurant, presumably trying to cool off, just like I was. I scurried out to get Luis and Diego so that they could also enjoy this great view of the lions.

You don't have to see Luis's whole face to see how cool he thinks this is!

One of the things you can do is to feed the giraffes. What it really means is that you can spend $5 to buy 3 pieces of romaine lettuce and then elbow your way to the fence, and hope that the giraffes are still hungry. Luis loved it!!

Back in the summer of 2008 while in Florida, we went to the Brevard County Zoo. It was interesting to go back to that post and see Luis feeding the giraffes two years ago, wearing the same batman hat (and seem him just as hot as he was today!).

And, as Diego pointed out, it was so hot and humid that you truly felt like you were on an African Safari!

Not Sure What to Title This One!

Despite the rising temperatures (it was in the low 90's yesterday!), Luis still really, really likes to wear his winter coat outside (and his tall pants, and his long pajama pants, and his fleecy pj's, etc.). Take this picture for instance. It's hard to tell, but under his winter jacket is a fleece pj top. And he is again wearing his rescue shoes. Despite the rain, the temperature in this photo is in the upper 80's!!

35 Weeks

I'm trying to be better about getting pregnancy shots. But so far, I'm taking them myself, which doesn't make it any easier. This is right at 35 weeks - and I'm definitely showing! For a comparison shot, here is me a 34 weeks when I was pregnant with Luis. With the clothing being so different, I find it hard to compare, personally.

The last week or so has been tough - due to some minor swelling, I can no longer wear my wedding or engagement ring, and I'm down to just 2 pairs of shoes. These things happened last time, so I wasn't so surprised. But a couple of days ago, I woke up, put my contacts in, and realized that I couldn't really see out of my right eye. Got a new contact for that eye, and still everything was fuzzy. Took me a few more minutes to realize that this was another side effect of pregnancy swelling - that my eye ball had change shape just enough to render my current contact prescription "invalid" for me (not sure of the right word, but the bottom line is that everything was suddenly blurry!). I'm not looking forward to a month of just my glasses. The last time I bought new glasses was just after Luis was born. The prescription is way out of date AND the glasses don't fit well (easily slip down my nose every time I look down). Sigh. A small price to pay for a new life - or so I keep telling myself!!

I'm still trying to catch up on blog posts, and am posting a bit out of order. I am hoping to get a little more caught up over the weekend. At my last OB appointment (35 weeks!) my doctor told me I needed to be off my feet and resting more. This is bad news in terms of caring for Luis, Diego and the house, but it may be good news for my work with Thomas and updating the blog...

Ready to Rescue

Luis is wearing his rescue shoes and rescue goggles in case someone is stuck in the tall tall grass - he can rescue them. So says Luis.

Luis the Fashionista

Luis really does do a pretty good job of picking out his clothes. Diego and I joke a bit about his affinity for black turtle necks and long sleeved black shirts, but that seems to be what he likes. He picked this outfit out on his own.

As we were walking down to climb the small magnolia tree in a neighbors yard, Luis stopped at this fire hydrant and asked me to take his picture.

When I Wish Upon a Star...

... I dream about the day when Luis really can cut the grass. Luis seems pretty excited about that day, too. Though to be fair, Diego, who does 99.99% of the lawn maintenance is probably a little more excited than me!

33 Weeks

There have been precious few pictures taken of me this pregnancy. This one here is at 33.5 weeks, which is kind of hard to believe. I feel like I look smaller than I did at 26 weeks, but I think it's the weird framing of this picture. I definitely feel bigger than this looks.

Generally speaking, things are going well. I am continually amazed at what a different pregnancy this is compared to Luis's. I know that ALL pregnancies are different, just as all babies are different. I'm sure that part of the reason it's been harder is a result of already having a child at home and also the simple fact that I'm 3 1/2 years older. I definitely feel much more tired at the end of the day (and sometimes in the middle of the day or even early in the morning) than I did with Luis.

I'm trying to get some extra hours in now, in anticipation of slowing down towards the end of the pregnancy. I enjoy the work tremendously, but after a couple of nights of working UBER late and then being up early with Luis, I realize that I just can't do it anymore. Sigh.

A Package for the Baby and the Big Kid

Peg Norris located the Norris-McDow moses basket for us and shipped it our way. I found myself very nostalgic about it's arrival, and so grateful that another one of our babies can sleep in it. Also in the package was a Zanzibar jersey for Luis. While Luis likes it, Diego likes it more!

Batting Practice

These days, Diego often takes Luis out in to the backyard for a little batting practice before dinner. Luis loves the time with Diego, and I love the quiet time to finish pulling dinner together. Diego, very smartly, uses whiffle balls with Luis - allowing Luis to hit hard, but with little concern for hitting/damaging anything. Despite the fact that Diego REALLY does not like baseball, he has been a great batting coach for Luis.

A Trip to the Zoo (with Luka)

In the last couple of weeks, we have been doing more with Luis's friend Luka (and Luka's mom Lea Ann). Today, we went to the zoo together, and had a great time!

One of the nicest things about going to a familiar place with new people is that we see new things (the first time we went to the zoo with Hyram and his family, we finally made it all the way to the reptile house, a sight we'd missed our first 100 visits to the zoo). Luka and Lea Ann introduced us to the Discovery House - a classroom like area in the children's zoo area. Honestly, we migrated that way to enjoy the air conditioning, but found lots of interesting things once inside.

The MOST interesting, to me at least, was when Luis picked up a piece of chalk to draw a picture of Fireman Sam. I was expecting a sort of scribble that I normally see. When I looked up distractedly and saw this:

I almost fell out of my chair. I had no idea Luis could draw such a LIFE-LIKE drawing. Pretty exciting stuff.

Here are Luka and Luis playing on a caterpillar in the kids zoo. All in all, it was a fun day!

Still Loving Firetrucks!

Almost every time we go to Walmart, we see firetrucks and fireman (much to Luis's delight). And much to MY delight, they are always VERY friendly with Luis, allowing him to tour the truck, try on gear and ask lots of questions. Today, Diego was with us when we went - and I was glad that Diego got to see, first hand, what these encounters are like.

Snuggled in (Ashley's) Bed

We were having a quiet kind of morning where I try to get some work done around the house and thus let Luis watch too much TV. He stays in his pajamas and loves it. So while I was cleaning the bathroom, Luis went to get a few "comfort items" and then sprawled out on Ashley's bed to watch some TV in our room. You can see Alfie (the green/orange turtle), Baxter (black & white dog), Puppy Dog (the tan dog barely sticking out under Alfie), Bat, and Blanket. And on top of Luis is the amazing quilt that Mercedes made for Luis for Christmas. That he brought the quilt to the snuggle-fest is what I love best about this photo!

Luis Camping

While I was in Rock Hill working, Diego took Luis on his first camping trip. It was a HUGE success.

The Joker

It's just raspberry popsicle, but it looks A LOT like the Joker make up to me!