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No Cavity Club!

Posted on by Erica

Today, John joined Cherry Hill Dental’s “No Cavity Club.”  We now have two proud members.  Laura loves going to the dentist, but John falls in the “not so much” category.  While it was touch and go with John at first, the Dental Assistant brought in a stuffed monkey with big teeth and a giant toothbrush for him to play with and all was well after that.  That monkey had super clean teeth when John got done brushing!  He even let Dr. Mary look at his teeth and he didn’t complain.  He was especially excited to get his first “No Cavity Club” t-shirt and a Bubble Gun.

Another exciting thing happened with John today too!   I got a call about 1 pm from Cheryl.  She put John on the phone and he told me that he went #2 in the potty ALL BY HIMSELF!  For anyone who understands our struggles with potty training, this is something to be *very* excited about!  John simply has not cared at all about potty training.  For him to go into the bathroom at daycare and go #2 in the potty without being prompted is awesome!  I’m so tired of buying diapers/pull-ups!  It’s been very nearly seven years of that…..

The Garage Beer Fridge

Posted on by Erica

After a hard day of working in the yard, this is the place in our garage that Andy visits.

It’s the garage beer fridge, otherwise known as my old dorm refrigerator from college.  For as long as Andy and I have lived in Missouri, it’s been our beer fridge, or rather *one* of our beer fridges as we have one inside the house too.  The one inside is for the “good” beer – Samuel Adams, Guinness, Molson, etc.  The joke with the garage fridge is that it’s supposed to have good “yard working” beer in it.  Generally, that means crappy beer (or what *I* consider crappy) – Schlitz, Stag, Old Style, etc.  Today, though, I changed it up and loaded it with Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy!  It’s still a great yard working beer, but even *I* drink this kind because it’s just good summer beer.  I’m just hoping that Andy doesn’t pass out from fright and think he’s at the wrong house when he sees it.  😉

Oh, and Dad? – Normally, the garage fridge holds the Lacrosse Lager, but we only have one can left.  We need a delivery pretty please!  (Yes, I do consider Lacrosse Lager to be crappy beer, Dad, but Andy loves it.  Really, *he* needs the delivery, pretty please!)

Big Boy Seats!

Posted on by Erica

Well, John had gotten too big for his current car seats.  Today, I went to Target and purchased “big boy booster seats.”  He was so excited when he saw them!

We went to Bob Evans for dinner because I really didn’t feel like cooking.  John rode in his new booster seat and he was so happy.  How am I do with this change, you ask?  I’m okay for the most part, but this is just another “hit me in the face” realization that my baby boy just isn’t a baby anymore.

Bird Nest

Posted on by Erica

The Silver Maple tree in our front yard finally must qualify as big enough.  We discovered a bird nest in it.  Soon, we’ll have baby Robins!

Springtime Favorite

Posted on by Erica

One of my favorite springtime things is the smell of blooming lilacs.  As a kid, I used to walk by the huge lilac that our neighbor had and smell the flowers every day.  I was always sad when the blooms died off for the year.  We have planted four lilac bushes around our house.  It took a while, but now they all bloom!  Ah, the smell of blooming lilacs….

Meramec Caverns

Posted on by Erica

We went to see Meramec Caverns today.  Andy and I had been there before, but it has been at least 11 years since we were there.  I was a little concerned that the kids would be bored, but it turned out to be quite the opposite.  Laura was fascinated by everything the tour guide said and she was very excited to get to see stalagmites and stalactites up close.  Other members of our tour were getting a kick out of her repeating parts of what the tour guide said.  She also asked Andy a ton of questions.  I walked the tour with John who was most impressed with the reflection pools and also with the colored lights they would use on some of the formations.

As an adult who can comprehend time frames, it was staggering to hear that some of the oldest formations in the cave are from when dinosaurs roamed the earth.  This “table” in the “wine room” is estimated to be 75 million years old.  Simply amazing.

It was a fun tour and the kids enjoyed it.  I’m sure we’ll be going back sometime.  Maybe we’ll even do the “Caveman Zipline” tour next time.

St. Louis Zoo!

Posted on by Erica

What a great day!  We headed off to the St. Louis for the kids’ first ever trip to the St. Louiz Zoo.  The Zoo did not disappoint and it proved to be a fun day.  We will definitely have to go back though soon because we did not get to see everything.  That’s what happens when you have 90 acres to cover and only 6 hours to do it in.  Special thanks to Grandma Marilyn for using her Zoo Pass for us.  We definitely loved the Emerson Children’s Zoo, the Zooline Railroad, and the Carousel!  John’s favorite part was riding the Zooline Railroad.  He also LOVED Penguin & Puffin Coast.  Laura’s favorite part was seeing a real live Lemur and she even picked out a Lemur stuffie from one of the Zoo’s gift shop.  We got a lot of great pictures of the animals and us to, of course.  Here we are as a family of Otters!

This is the “Big Beetle” statue outside the Insectarium.  Both kids really enjoyed that part of the Zoo.  They got to see all kinds of insects and the Butterfly House was a big hit.  John was a little freaked out by all the butterflies flying all around, but he still thought they were very “pretty.”

Laura was very excited to see this beauty up close and personal.  When we first saw the peacock, his tail was down.  He’s a gorgeous bird either way!  After wandering around the back of the bird house, we discovered him with his tail open as he was working to impress another bird.  He stayed that way for a while and we got some beautiful pictures.

We walked as fast as we could to see the bear feeding at 4 pm.  When we first went by the bear exhibits, Bert the Grizzly Bear was nowhere to be seen.  He knows that he gets fed at 4 pm though and he was waiting for the Zoo Ranger.  Bert is 21 years old and quite beautiful.  He wasn’t very hungry though because he got a big shank bone for breakfast that day.  He did sort of attempt to catch the oranges that the Ranger tossed to him, but the Ranger said that you could tell Bert wasn’t that hungry because he can catch anything tossed to him when he wants too.

All in all, it was a great day!  We were all happy to get to our hotel for the night and eat dinner.  We did a bit of swimming and then it was bed time.  Tomorrow, it’s off to Meramec Caverns!