Alex's Animal Adventures

To make up for lost time during my trip, I've been putting Alex to bed since Wednesday. (Normally we alternate.) It's been taking longer than normal; he falls asleep after drinking some of his milk, then wakes up when I try to transfer him to the crib, finishes his sippy, and finally goes down for the night. I've been getting out of his room around 10:30 p.m., leaving me with no time or energy to do anything, let alone blog.

After all his hard work being "Mr. Mom" last week, Eugene gets to spend this weekend at a photography workshop. It's a pretty intense workshop from what he tells me, and he even got up at 4:00 a.m. today to drive downtown to the course. They're walking around a lot, so I'm not sure if I'd really call it a break. The important thing is that he has fun and learns a lot. In the meantime, I've been solo with Alex since yesterday morning. (Eugene got home last night after Alex was already in bed.) I spend almost every Saturday alone with Alex while Eugene works, so that's not so different. The twist here is putting Alex to bed by myself, since we normally split that. It didn't go too badly last night. The worst part of it was when Alex wanted me to "draw shapes" and I didn't have any bath crayons available. I was forced to use my own makeup. He wound up getting it everywhere, especially on his hands. Everything washed off, but I fear I set a bad precedent.

After a phone call interrupted Alex's nap yesterday, I took him to the mall to run a few errands. He didn't like the rides, but he really loved my smoothie. He also enjoyed going to a pet store and looking at the puppies.

Today I took him to a local petting zoo. I meant to take him on his birthday, but it didn't work out. Although he slept in until 8:15 a.m., allowing me to do some chores, he still fell asleep on the way over, around 11:00. He woke up once he saw we were in a new place. We started out in the barn, where he got to look at snakes, turtles, chickens, and goats. Then we moved outside. Among the animals on display were horses, donkeys, peafowl, turkeys, African geese (which he really liked), llamas, sheep, a cow, and more goats. I didn't want him to have too much contact with the animals since that's not recommended for such a young child, but we did feed a goat and pet sheep.

After we were done with the zoo, we played in the park. Alex kept going down the slide backwards on his tummy. I was happy to see him play, since he hasn't done much in our local park lately. Perhaps he needs some novelty. The last thing Alex did before we left was ride a pony. At first he didn't hold on to the saddle at all, but by the end he was practically bent over it--possibly fatigue. I didn't take any pictures as I was too busy supporting him. Maybe the next time we go to the petting zoo, we can go with Eugene so he can take pictures.