Maybe the Zoo

Today the family went to the Memphis Public Library.  Just as we hopped out of the car we noticed Daddy had left his keys locked inside.  Mommy and Leila went inside to play at the library for a few hours while Daddy took a bus home to get Mommy's car and some coat hangers.

After Daddy had given up on the coat hangers, the library had closed, and we'd all settled in to wait for the locksmith Leila announced that she wanted to go potty.  We had to tell her the library was closed so she wouldn't be able to potty right away.  Leila didn't like that answer so she frowned a bit and thought quietly to herself until she came up with a solution.

"Maybe the Zoo is open."

New School, other fun

Just after Daddy's birthday, Leila started attending a brand new school!  She loves her new Montesorri school and wakes up early every morning asking if it's time to go to big kid school.  She gets to take a backpack and a lunch box and has had two show-and-tell sessions already.  Today for show-and-tell she got to bring a musical instrument.

There are lots of best parts about big kid school--they have a big playground that Leila loves and a blue carpet where the class gathers to read stories and do activities.  The best surprise so far was the day when they got to have a pizza party at school while a dump truck brought new mulch for the playground.  That's right--a DUMP TRUCK.  We have heard a lot about that dump truck.  Apparently it was BIG and LOUD.

Now that Leila goes to big kid school she does things a little differently.  For instance, instead of calling all of her baby dolls "baby" she's started naming them.  We have one named Pumpkin and another named Peach.  I think that after learning the names of all of her new pre-school friends Leila decided it would be convenient if her babies had names too.  

On Friday, Leila went to the pediatrician to get a two-year-old well-child check up.  She is still tall!  The doctor said she is in the top 75% height and exactly 50% for weight.  She'll have to explain to all of her relatives (especially GiGi) what it's like to be a tall kid.  

After the doctor appointment Leila had a playdate with Buck.  First they had a nap while Buck's mom ran an errand, then they played in Leila's little kitchen.  Buck likes to cook just like his parents--they had a game party last weekend where they cooked five different types of game.  We didn't have any plastic venison, but Buck did just fine playing with green plastic grapes.

After Buck left, Leila and Mommy took a trip to the zoo.  As usual when the weather is good, we've been spending a lot of time lately at the zoo.  We went back for an encore trip on Sunday.  The zoo has a new exhibit called "Birds and Bees" where they used to have the butterfly house.  It's filled with a flock of hundreds and hundreds of parakeets.  We miss the butterflies, but feeding the birds is fun too.  They also opened up some of the fairground rides next to the penguins, so Leila got to drive a boat after she went on a train ride this Saturday.  In addition to all of that excitement, Leila also got to dip her toes in the "Nile" at the zoo Sunday night--a really fun activity that made Mommy a little nervous since the other kids playing in the fountain didn't know that Leila doesn't know how to swim yet.

Luckily, we're going to have lots of swimming practice soon when we go on vacation in L.A. Lower Alabama has lots of opportunities for swimming--there's a brand new pool at GiGi and Boompa's new house and a "Lazy River" at the Caribe condo.   

Leila has been practicing her fishing skills to get ready for her trip to L.A. too.  This weekend she took Daddy and his fishing pole to a fishing pond in West Memphis.  We fished for a while, fed goldfish crackers to great big ducks, chatted with baby ducks, pointed at turtles, and launched rockets.  The Nunnally's sent Daddy a set of stomp-powered rockets for his birthday that can be powered by Daddy-stomps, Leila-stomps, and sometimes by Daddy picking Leila up and dropping her on the stomper.  Those rockets must have gone really high and poked some holes in the clouds because before we were completely finished it started raining.

I don't know when exactly we're going to be traveling south this week; Leila and Mommy are going to visit cousin Roman down in Florida this weekend while Daddy does "Start-Up Weekend" and then we're going to drive back to Memphis the next week to pick up Daddy and drag him down to see that lazy river.  We'll update when plans are more than half-baked.  

Grandmama's coming to visit tonight!

Redbirds picture thanks to gatesofmemphis

Leila is excited at the prospect of seeing her Grandmama tonight and throughout the weekend.

We're looking forward to touring a Montessori school tomorrow afternoon in hopes of enrolling Leila this summer.  We've also looked at Zoo events - we've renewed our Memphis Zoo membership for the third or fourth year in a row.

Mommy has identified a Memphis Redbirds baseball game WITH FIREWORKS as a possibility for Saturday.  Mommy loves baseball, Daddy loves the BBQ nachos at the park.

Stay tuned for pictures and stories!

17 Months

Daddy came home Friday afternoon a few hours after GiGi went home to Mobile. Thanks for entertaining Leila so well this week, GiGi! Leila and Mommy spent a few hours in the airport waiting for Daddy - apparently there was some misunderstanding regarding the flight times. This led us all to go home tired and eat some pizza and go to sleep early.

On Saturday Leila went to the Pink Palace Arts and Crafts Festival for the second year in a row. She took a while to warm to the crafts but once she got to ride a train, pet a rabbit, pet a pig, and eat cotton candy while listening to Bob Marley covers she decided she liked the festival after all. Mommy did a good job saving Leila and Daddy from being too tired and cranky - the food and drinks and trains helped tremendously.

Today Leila and Daddy went to the zoo for the afternoon. We rode the train (toot toot, ding ding!) and visited Kofi the month-old giraffe. Supposedly we have a new giraffe due soon and a baby elephant due in a year or so. Elephant gestation lasts 22 months, says super friendly tilt-a-whirl operator at the zoo.

Leila and Daddy have had a great weekend getting reacquainted with one another (and with Nemo and Disney's Robin Hood). Tomorrow everyone's going back to school and work and day care. Except for Frida. She stays home.


Notice that Leila got to play with some baby-sized rocking chairs again this year. She's a huge fan of chairs and has the smile to prove it.

Leila's Summer Vacation

A lot has happened since our last update in March. Leila is out of day care for the summer and Mommy is entertaining her in the daytime while working in her studio at night.

Leila turned one on the second of May and celebrated several times. She and Mommy went to Thomaston, Tuscaloosa, Mobile, and Foley all in the span of a week and a half. Daddy went along to Thomaston for Mother's Day and Tuscaloosa for Uncle Finch's college graduation.

Grandmama Pritchett came to visit for a few days after Leila's big trip to Alabama and among other fun things we shared Leila's first watermelon of the new year. Mommy installed some of her paintings in downtown Memphis at the Center City Commission and we all went downtown one day to see them. They looked so good one of the directors at the Commission wanted to buy the whole set.

The Memphis Zoo has just reopened their butterfly exhibit after a long winter so we went to visit again. Leila has grown just a bit since the first time we took her to the zoo exactly one year ago.

Leila eats nonstop nowadays. We usually feed her fruit (bananas, watermelon, strawberries), beans, vegetables (she doesn't go for broccoli), cereal, cheese, yogurt, juice, and whole milk. She helps us spread the food all over the tray and the floor. Frida helps pick up the choice bits off of the floor - mostly just the cheese and crackers and cereal.

Leila is trying very hard to learn to walk - she spends a lot of time every day holding on to one or two of her parents' hands, leaning forward, and quickly walking around the house, the yard, the driveway, and any place we happen to visit. Daddy especially likes it when she walks with her sandals on because they make an amusing slapslapslapslapslap sound as she moves.