Zoo

Last weekend we took Lilly to the zoo. It was an enjoyable family activity and we all had fun. However, Lilly did have run-in with a swan. She was feeding the fish, ducks, and swans at the feeding station. She was picking up the loose food on the ground and throwing it in the water. She got a little too close to a swan and it bit her hand twice. She was shocked but she didn’t cry. It made her upset for about 30 minutes after ‘the incident’. It left a small bruise on her hand. Tyson let the swan bit him just to see how bad it hurt. He said it wasn’t too bad.

We found a lost carousel ticket on the ground. There was no way to return it to the owner and no one came looking for it so we decided it was okay to use it. I hope that is honest. I am glad we did use it because Lilly loved the ride. She was sad when it was over and had a lot of fun waving at daddy. Next time I’ll make sure to buy her a ticket because she had so much fun.

We also had tickets for the train. Lilly could see it and hear it throughout the park and was obsessed. Every time she saw or heard it she asked if we could go on the train. We told her we would ride it at the end but she didn’t really understand that so I told her we could ride it after lunch. Then she started asking if we could eat lunch every time she heard the train.

Before you look at the pictures you should look at our blog from last year’s zoo visit. http://tysonkarenlillyanddontforgetthedog.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2012-05-26T13:55:00-05:00&max-results=7&start=34&by-date=false. I can’t believe how much Lilly and Tyson have changed.  I guess I have changed too - this time around I am big and pregnant. I took a couple of the same pictures just to do a comparison.

 

This was before the biting occurred

 

 

I thought this was a good stomach picture - you can kind of see how big I am getting

 

 

Flat Stanley

We had a visit from Flat Stanley. He arrived from Mr. Holt's Class at Ponderosa Elementary School where my nephew Sam Wirick attends. We had so much fun with Flat Stanley. We felt like tourist. Here are some of the things we did.

While he was here, these are some of the things he did and saw:

·         Stanley stayed in our home in Bettendorf, Iowa

 

 

·         Stanley hung out with our cute dog, Herbert

 

 

·         Stanley visited the Mississippi River and fed ducks

 

 

·         Stanley crossed the river and visited Moline, Illinois

 

 

·         Stanley went to John Deere Headquarters in Illinois

 

 

·         Stanley enjoyed the John Deere Museum and sitting on all of the tractors

 

 

 

 

 

 

·         Stanley saw a farm. There was no corn growing on the farm yet so it was pretty bare

·         Stanley thought it was very cool seeing two different states while visiting us

·         Stanley liked coming to Bettendorf, Iowa and visiting the Harris Family

 

Some other interesting things about my home are:

Bettendorf Iowa is part of a bigger area called the Quad Cities which originally consisted of three cities in Illinois and one city in Iowa. The area has now become larger and contains more than 4 cities. However, it is still called the Quad Cities. The Mississippi River divides Illinois and Iowa. The Quad Cities is home of John Deere Headquarters. We have a lot of tourist come to this area to tour the John Deere facilities and museums. We also have a Buffalo Bill’s museum and a lot of interesting history regarding the Mississippi River. The thing we like most about this area is the River. We like driving across the many bridges, seeing the boats, barges, and locks, and learning about the ecology of the Mississippi. We are also home to the TV Show on the History Channel, American Pickers.     

Cinco de Mayo and Mothers Day

This year Tyson really wanted to do celebrate Cinco de Mayo. I think he just wanted an excuse to get a piñata for Lilly. It was a fun family activity though so I am glad he recommended it. Lilly loved the piñata. She wasn’t strong enough to break it so we had to help with that. She liked picking up and eating all of the candy and yelling at Herbert not to eat it.

 

 

Lilly stopping to give the pinata a hug.

Lilly and Tyson getting a treat

Tyson made us a yummy Mexican dinner. He made us Carne Asada Tacos which is my favorite kind of tacos. They were very yummy and made awesome leftovers. We had all the side dishes with it too. I was most impressed with the grilled jalapenos stuffed with pepper jack cheese. The only thing I missed was the good guacamole; store bought isn’t as good as restaurant guacamole.

Mother’s Day was also very nice this year. Tyson cleaned the kitchen for me in the morning. That was probably the best part of the whole day. Lilly and Tyson didn’t make breakfast for me because I just prefer cereal. We had a beautiful day at church. They didn’t make us mom’s teach primary and we got a yummy cookie. After church Tyson made fettuccini alfredo for dinner. I got some cute jewelry from Lilly and Tyson. We let Lilly pick out my bracelet and she got me one with a star on it – not surprising.     

Everything New

A lot of new things have been going on around our house. Here are some important ones.

Lilly: 

Lilly got a big kid toddler bed. As soon as it arrived she insisted on Tyson putting it together for her. She was SO excited. I didn’t want to move the crib immediately because I didn’t know how she was going to do with the big kid bed. She wanted to sleep in it that night. About 2 minutes after bed time I could hear her whimpering in her room. It was such a sad whimper. I went in and I could tell she was scared. I tried putting her in the crib but she was too excited and still wanted to sleep in her bed. So I put her back in bed and the whimpering started again. Tyson went in there and sat with her for about 30 minutes. While he was in there she told him that she wanted to sleep under the butterfly (where the crib was) so Tyson moved the big kid bed over to where the crib was. That seemed to fix her being scared and she fell right asleep. 

She has been doing pretty good in her big kid bed. She does wake up a little earlier in the morning and comes and finds me. If she can’t find me she starts yelling “Mommy, are you”.  A couple of times she has tried to sneak out of the room if she doesn’t want to go to bed.

We have also had a couple of interesting nap times. Today I put Lilly down for her nap. It was dead quiet up there for an hour so I assumed she fell asleep fast. I went in and checked on her and she had: 1. diaper rash cream all over her arms, legs, face, and a little in her hair, 2. the wipes out trying to wipe off the cream, 3. her clear hair elastic bands all over the bed and floor and 4. all of her blankets and stuffed animals on the bed. She also had all of her binkies out.

We have also started potty training Lilly. I started off with the pull-ups and having her sit on the potty every hour. That didn’t work at all so I switched over to big kid panties. She has been doing really well with those. She does still wear pull-ups for naps and bed time. She is also a little scared of public bathrooms.

We also bought Lilly her first bike. She loves it but is still getting the hang of steering and pedaling.

My favorite new thing that Lilly is saying is ‘me too’. Anytime she wants to do what I am doing or go where I am going she says ‘me too’. Most of the day is spent with her following me around saying ‘me too, mommy. Me too.’  

Baby Boy:

We have decided to name the baby Bennett. You may call him Ben, however; I think that I will most likely call him Bennett. We are still deciding on a middle name. Lilly calls Bennett, bet-it. I really liked the name Peter but every time I told someone the name they told me not to use it and that he would get made fun of too much.

We have started buying everything for the baby and have moved the crib to the nursery. We got his bedding set and have made up his crib. For some reason I am nesting really early with this baby. I feel the need to buy everything right now.  

These are some things we have gotten for the wall. The picture on the left I got at Michael's for 1 penny. No joke!

The baby is healthy and is doing well. He is a kicker and really likes it when I eat food. However, he does like to kick in the middle of the night.  

Karen:

I am doing well. Here is a picture of me about 2 weeks ago. I have gotten a little bigger since then.

This baby is sitting really low and is hurting my body. I wake up every morning feeling like I got hit by a car. I feel like I am 85 years old hobbling around and I grunt a lot, which is embarrassing because I am not far enough along to be grunting when I move. People keep giving me weird looks because I am not big enough to be having such a difficult time getting around.

I cut my hair again because it is growing so fast. This time I told her to cut it even shorter so it doesn’t lose its style so fast.  I didn’t take into account that it would no longer stay in a ponytail. I miss my ponytails.

Tyson:

Tyson is moving along with school. He is about to finish an intersession course. It is a full credit course that was smashed into 4 weeks to fit in between semesters. It has been online but requires him to logon for 3 hours every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  Lilly and I have missed him a lot and can’t wait for it to be over.
 
Herbert:

Herbie is getting old. He will be turning 7 years old in November. He has some issues with his knees like most small dogs do. He has been limping around the house the last couple of days and whimpers when he steps on his foot/knee wrong. I feel so bad for him. Tyson told me we couldn’t pay the $1,500-$5,000 per knee to fix him so I am just praying that Herbie won’t hurt himself too bad. Say a small prayer for him too. I would be crushed if anything happened to him.   

Flooding of the Mississippi

Being here during the flooding of the Mississippi River has been an interesting experience. We usually hear about it in passing on the news but when you are here it is all you hear about. It has been crazy driving around town and seeing the streets flooded. Luckily our house has not been flooded but a couple of people in the ward/neighborhood have had their basements flooded. It makes me thankful for a built-in sump pump and an unfinished basement. We have had enough personal troubles with flooding.  

It rained all last week. I know that we broke some records but I can’t find them online. In one day it rained continuously throughout the whole day – nonstop. The thundering and lightning here is also something I have never encountered. The sound of the thunder is so loud since there are no mountains and not many trees to break the sound. It scares me sometimes. It has also scared Lilly and Herbert on occasion although we haven’t had any problems with it waking either of them up at night, luckily.

 

This is a little hard to see but those are houses across the river. They are now in the river.

 

There are whole neighborhoods that look like this

If you would like to see more pictures of the areas flood you can visit: http://host.madison.com/gallery/news/photos-quad-cities-flooding/collection_5b931fc0-6f51-5bc9-9961-a1220c398a3a.html#0

Best Friends

Lilly's best friend is named Maci. They are the same age and go to nursery together. They are super cute with each other. Lilly talks about Maci a lot and gets excited whenever we have a play date. They hold hands when they go to nursery and give each other hugs. Although, Lilly tries to give more hugs then Maci (Lilly is a little touchy feely). It has been fun watching Lilly make a friend.