Zoo Visit!

Back in June (yeah, yeah...I'm catching up!) we went to the Milwaukee County Zoo for Family Free Night with our friend Laura and her daughter Nina.

It was nice to be able to walk around the zoo when it wasn't so crowded (it was a member's only event, and seeing as I work there and all....)

This summer, the special exhibit is the 'birds down under', and fun exhibit where the birds are free to fly around and you can feed them millet seed on a stick. I had a feeling that my animal loving, bird FANATIC son would enjoy this. I wasn't disappointed!


When we first entered the exhibit, he was truly amazed that we were in this room with ALL of these birds. I think he was stunned!


Then, he started pointing to all the birds and SHOUTING 'bird! bird!'.




He was really trying to figure this thing out -- but the look of joy on his face was just awesome!


Daddy got a millet seed stick and enticed a bird over -- Max was in H.E.A.V.E.N!


Here's a video!


He was so happy afterwards, he just had to give me a hug! :)


And, no trip to the zoo is complete without a ride on the train! We thought it was fun to make Max kiss Nina -- we're just trying to get all the embarrassing pictures we can right now!

Strawberry Picking

Note to Self:

Next time, don't dress a 20 month old in a white shirt to go strawberry picking.

NOT a smart choice, MOM....

Thank goodness SHOUT really works....

Father's Day

I realize this is late...but better late than never right?

We ventured out to the Boerner Botanical Gardens on Father's Day with our friends Steph and Max and their son, Jack. It was a kids PARADISE -- lots of open space to run, and plants to see and birds to listen to! Max had a blast! So did we!

Maxisms Today

These days, lil guy is ALL personality. And I am LOVING every little snippet of it (well, MOST of it...).

I would say right now the thing that he does that most stands out to me is that he has really taken to bossing us around lately. Some of his favorite things to tell us to do are:

Sit Down -- to be said as 'sit DOWN' -- this statement is 99.9% of the time emphasized with a firm slap to whatever surface we should be sitting on...the floor, the couch, a chair. "Sit Down" is also another way to say "Lay Down".

Dada! - to be said as 'daDAAAAAA!' -- this statement usually indicates that mom and lil Max are doing something and he would like dad to be included. Commonly occurs in the bathroom while we are brushing our teeth in the morning. In this instance, daDAAAA is followed by "teef".

Night Night -- this is said whenever Max wants you to lay down with him...on the floor, on the couch or on our bed. It usually indicates that he wants to a)snuggle or b) tackle you. He also uses this to tell us when he wants to go to bed.

Nemo -- to be said as 'NEEMOOO!' I blame this one solely on my parents -- as they got him addicted to watching Finding Nemo while we were in Paris.

Ball, Bubble -- said to either identify a ball or bubbles or to indicate that this is what he would like you to do.

Max's vocabulary has exploded and he can identify most things by name, or say what he wants. This has dramatically decreased the number of temper tantrums and explosions. He loves to tell us when he wants 'milk' or a 'cracker', or even a tickle!

Max can identify his colors by name now, whereas before he would just point them out. His favorite color to say is yellow -- his favorite color of toy appears to be blue (daddy is sighing a breath of relief that it is no longer pink).

We're up to 11 teeth now, with the latest addition being his lower right lateral incisor. Still a little slow, but we've heard that means less of a possibility of orthodontia for his future!

I'm sure there is much MUCH more that I am forgetting. This kid is a TRIP -- he is just full of JOY and LIFE and LAUGHTER. He makes every day better for me just by being in it!

Here he is, practicing his French moves... :)

June Fitness Challenge Summary

June was a busy month, and I struggled for most of it to fit in my fitness challenge. Some of the exercises were easy to fit in during my normal routine -- others were more difficult -- like pushups.

Overall, I met all of my goals for the month, and even exceeded some. Except for those darn pushups -- I was 150 short!

Here is the summary:

Situps: 1700 (1500 goal) = 113%
Pushups: 750 (900 goal) = 83%
Squats: 1550 (1500 goal) = 103%
Lunges: 1700 (1500 goal) - 113%
Miles (walk or run): 85 miles -- which breaks down to about 2.83 miles a day.

Not bad. I would have liked to have met my goal for pushups, and to increase the miles to at least 3 miles a day, but I'll take it.

The last half of the month I was playing catch-up to make up for my time 'off' while in Paris -- which made it more stressful and less fun. But, I did discover that my 30 day shred workout will knock off major numbers in all of these categories -- so that helped me out in the end!

Goals will stay the same for next month, and this time I'm going to add a little cardio move to the mix -- plank jumping jacks -- and I'll start with 30/day and reassess next month if necessary.

So: July Fitness Goals
Situps = 1550
Pushups = 930
Squats (with shoulder press) = 1550
Lunges (with bicep curl) = 1550
Plank Jacks = 930

Wish me luck!

Paris Day 6

Wow -- can't believe it took me this long to post the final day of the France trip. Life has been busy!!

For our last day in France, we decided we would go into the Hotel d'Invalides to see Napolean's coffin and to the Musee d'Rodin which is right across the street. We weren't disappointed -- it was all so BEAUTIFUL!

We walked by this every morning and evening on the way to or from the train station. It smelled delicious -- and we would often stop in for a fresh treat:



Today we got on the RER



and got off the the Invalides stop



The stop put us out right in front of the Hotel d'Invalides, and there was a bunch of military walking around ... with fun shoulder decorations:



The dome on the church is unmistakeable, and beautiful



Once inside, you are amazed at just how beautiful the INSIDE of the dome also is!



The church has the coffins for Napolean's brothers and other noted military figures:





A view of Napolean's from above:



A view from the bottom floor...the thing was freaking HUGE! Especially if you consider how small Napolean was!



The church itself was also beautiful



Afterwards, we walked next door to see the Musee d'Rodin -- and we just paid to walk around the beautiful gardens.





This famous statue is there:



A view of the museum (once mansion). The structure in front of the building is a stage that is being set up for catwalks -- fashion week was starting in Paris!



We headed home afterwards and found this wonderful restaurant where we ate dinner, and celebrated my birthday:



The trip to France was outstanding, wonderful, relaxing. I hope we get to go back soon!

I love GRAPES!

Lil max L.O.V.E.S. grapes. Seriously.

And he'll do ANYTHING for them.

Just watch:



(...sorry it is so long, I left it unedited in all its glory because I just couldn't bear to cut anything from it!)

Bird Bird Bird. Bird is the word...

The cranes are now almost 3/4 the size of their parents... and they've been flapping their wings a lot lately, preparing for flight!

NEW: Dad found this Killdeer nest in the mulch -- they had been sitting on the eggs for a couple of weeks...

Yesterday they hatched! Note the fourth egg is now gone...the other 3 are pretty darn cute!

ETA -- the fourth bird just showed up!

Paris Day 5, Sacre Coeur and the Tower at Night

After picking Keith up from the hotel, we decided to head out to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica. It is located at the summit of the highest point in the city.

To get there, we road the Metro from one end to the other -- we were staying on the exact opposite side of the city from the Basilica.

By far, this was my FAVORITE part of Paris. Even with the steep climb and all the stairs. When we go back to Paris the next time, this will definitely be a place I will want to revisit. It was that beautiful.


View of the Basilica from halfway up the ascent.


View of the city from the top.


The basilica is a common place to gather, picnic and listen to music.





I took a walk through the Basilica, but no pictures were allowed inside -- I cannot put into words how beautiful it was. I lit a candle for our little family while I was inside.

Afterwards, we walked to have dinner at a nearby restaurant of a friend. We weren't disappointed by the dinner - it was outstanding! WE had quite a bit of wine to go with it....



Afterwards, we headed towards the tower to see it lit up in all its glory.






Drinking more wine that we bought from sellers who walk around asking way too much for a bad bottle of wine... :)



But it gets BETTER!

Every hour, on the hour, the tower goes from just being lit up, to 'twinkling'!!





We got a video of the 'twinkling', but it is over 5 mins long, and I don't have the energy to edit it...so these timelapse photos will have to do....

Paris Day 5, Arc de Triumph

After seeing the Louvre, we continued walking up the Champs d'Elyses and towards the Arc d'Triumph.



We saw this crazy person imitating King Tut along the Champs d'Elyses...asking for donations to just stand there in their gold outfit. This one guy kept standing 2 inches from the mask staring into it. I don't know -- this doesn't seem like a very lucrative job...



Grand Palais -- with Andy Warhol art exhibit!



The Arc de Triumph...and the roundabout from hell -- seriously!



Close!







More shots of the Arc. It is right in the center of the roundabout -- a 4 LANE ROUNDABOUT!



We passed by the Tower again on our way back to the Metro -- we had to go back to the hotel to pick up Keith -- poor guy had to work while we had all the fun!