A Trip to the Zoo

Ben and I had a brilliant idea on Sunday. We decided to go to the zoo as a family. I envisioned it a little bit like Old MacDonald's Farm in Cedar Rapids, Iowa... I thought we'd stop in, check out some animals and head home an hour later.

I was wrong.


We arrived at 10am when the zoo opened. Look how many cars are already in the parking lot, and can you see how many of them are setting up strollers?


This is what happened when we tried to get Peter in the stroller.

Peter was not interested in sitting in the stroller, so we walked. Slowly. I would say that about 50 people passed us on their way to the gigantic ticket line. Awesome.


Here we are in the ticket line. I was so perplexed by the size of the zoo and the amount of people there. Holy moly.


Poor Clara. She was stuck in her car seat for so long. We finally stopped for some food and let her kick around on the seat in our booth.

In addition to the aligator, elephants, seals and monkeys, we saw some flamingos.


Peter was pretty fascinated.


Peter kept asking for the giraffes. They were about a mile away from the flamingos.


They were totally the highlight of our trip.

This is what happened on the way home. I would have done just about anything for a nap, too.

Good Morning

And here we have all of the members of the Apley family (minus the photographer) sitting in one chair.

In the mornings, Peter likes to bring several friends out into the living room with him. Look closely and you will see a monkey, a giraffe and a horse in his lap.

What a good way to start the day!

If She Had Attended the Royal Wedding

Clara probably would have worn this hat...

CP-Chaos

Peter has been in babygroup with the same friends since they were just a couple of months old. Here is the whole group. Peter and I are in the front.


After today's class, several of us went to CPK for dinner. Have you ever wanted to have dinner with 8 two-year-olds? No? I'm pretty sure the people seated at the tables around us felt the same way.


One of my favorite moments was when Alexandra started feeding Peter pasta. He loved it!


Check out these well-behaved kids...

Dylan and Lauren working together on an art project.

Alexandra

Nicholas

Bode

Peter

Eyal

Kaj

We had a really fun time, but I don't think CPK is very anxious for us to return. I can't imagine why.

An Update

This past week was a good one...

Clara and I went to the park. She wanted to show off her cool pink blanket from Grandma Dorothy.

"Hello, everyone!"

We have been trying to have family dinners every night. It is not easy.

And please don't judge the mess in the background... or the ice cubes in my rosé.

My friend, Meghan, says that her two year old will eat a chicken drumstick, so that is what I made for dinner.

Peter threw his on the floor.

We took Peter and Clara to a joint doctor's appointment. It was Peter's 21 month appointment. He is 29 pounds and 33 inches tall. Big boy!

At two months, Clara is 11 pounds and 23 inches.

I don't know what I was thinking, making an appointment with both kids. It was one of the craziest hours in my life. I wanted to sleep for about 3 days afterwards.

Clara is fascinated by her new bouncer chair.

And she loves her changing table. This is where we take her when she is crying and within seconds, she is a happy girl.

Two Kids = Messy House

Holy moly. Our house is a mess. Always. Every single day.


This happened in less than two minutes. Awesome.


To escape the mess, we go outside. On this day, we went for a walk in our neighborhood.


Peter wanted a closer look at this house. Sorry, mister, time to go.

In case you're wondering what is on Peter's head, it's a sticker of course. There are about 75 more covering the floor and furniture in our home. I'll clean them up later... along with everything else.

Shake Booty

I have no idea where he learned this. Honestly.