Beautiful weekend...

This was really a beautiful weekend. Saturday's weather was outstanding, and today's turned out pretty good as well. We tried to make the most of it, and really had a full couple days. Whether or not that was a good thing for Jacob, I'm not sure. He got exposed to a lot of stuff. He wasn't always his charming self, but it was hard to tell if it was just a break in routine, or his new antsy behavior, or something else. He's really a handful these days, getting into everything. He always wants to be on the move, checking out things. We could have a million toys sitting on the living room floor, and he's forever crawling off to get his hands on the VCR, the coffee table in the corner, whatever's on the ottoman, the springy doorstop attached to the wall behind the front door, or the stuff on the bottom shelf of the console table at one end of the living room. It makes him quite a handful, because he rarely is content sitting still on a lap these days. His attention span is short and he does whatever he can to get some new scenery to accomodate it. As a result, it was more desirable to go out and do things than to sit around the house preventing Jacob from getting into trouble. It's just hard when you can't get him to sit and play for more than a couple minutes before something non-toy-related distracts him. Ugh.

So, yesterday afternoon while Craig was working a college lacrosse game, Jacob and I went for a walk. We would have stopped at the playground we walked past (a different one than the one we can see through our backyard), but he was sleeping by the time we got there. Still, it was a nice walk in the beautiful weather. The wind made pushing the stroller a challenge, but I guess it was a good workout for me! Once Craig got home, we decided to go up to the lake for dinner. We went to a place that we've never eaten before, for three reasons: 1) We had a coupon for a free entree; 2) They had outdoor seating; and 3) It wasn't Cheeburger Cheeburger, which we knew would be jammed. I've never seen the lakefront that busy. There were people everywhere. The line for one of the two Abbott's (custard) within a thousand feet of each other was super long. It was madness. Anyway, we got right in to eat, had a nice dinner, and enjoyed what was left of the good weather before the dark clouds rolled in. I got this picture of Jacob with my phone before the sun went away--but not before he rejected his sunglasses.

After dinner we headed to a Super Wal-Mart so I could check out a couple things. I actually wanted to get Jacob some summer clothes, because he really didn't have many. I had bought him three pairs of shorts at a good JC Penney sale earlier this week, but he didn't have many short-sleeved shirts and I needed an extra pair of shorts (or two) to leave at daycare for his messy days, so I figured Wal-Mart would work. Sure enough, cute, cheap stuff...easy enough.

Today we did a doubleheader...baseball and the zoo. We were originally going to do the Red Wings game yesterday and the zoo today, but then we found out that the game was an afternoon game, so that wouldn't work. We had really been looking forward to both, so we decided to try for both today. We figured Jacob might not last at the game (like I said, sitting still isn't his forte), so if we left early we could hit both. The baseball tickets were free and we're now zoo members, so a quick trip there wasn't a waste. We had fun at the game, and once we were in the sun it was pretty comfortable. However, Jacob got antsy by about the fifth inning. This was only his second baseball game ever. His first, as you may recall, was on his Christening day (and my birthday). He fell asleep during that one but we lasted the whole game. Not so much this time. Oh, well. However, we saw one fantastic inning that made the whole game worthwhile. And like I said, the tickets were free.

So off to the zoo we went. Jacob slept on the way there but woke up when we were going in. Thankfully the Seneca Park Zoo is a small zoo. Perfect for small kids and their short attention spans. There are times I wish it were bigger and I'm always surprised by how quickly you come back to the entrance, but they do have some good animals. Here's a mini-tour of today's visit. Maybe by the end of the summer we'll have pictures of everything :)

The rhinos were headbutting this bristly "punching bag"...and later on they were "spooning" down near their watering hole...


Here are Jacob and Craig checking out the meerkats. Supposedly there are babies in this exhibit, but we didn't see them...

The elephants were out doing some tricks while we were there...lots of exercises, I guess. They were up and down, curling their trunks and eating out of buckets...very cool.


You can't see them very well, and I'm not sure what Jacob was looking at, but this was at the penguin exhibit. He loves piggy back rides, and it was usually an easier way to give him a good view of the animals...though I have to hold his hands so he doesn't pull my hair out. Ouch.
We also saw a lot of monkeys, including the ever-entertaining orangutans. We caught a glimpse of the polar bear, were disappointed by the otter's lack of motion, saw the sea lions getting fed, got grossed out by the usual reptiles, and didn't see a handful of other animals anywhere in their habitats. I guess that's why I'm happy we have the membership. I'd hate to pay $9 per adult and not see stuff. Obviously our membership is way more than that (but still...not bad), but I like the thought of being able to go there whenever and see what we want and leave without guilt. Heck, I don't care if we don't see anything...it's a nice place to go for a walk on a beautiful day, if nothing else. It's a quick drive there (10 minutes, maybe), and I think Jacob will start picking up on it in the next couple months, the more we go and the older he gets. It was hard getting him to see and pay attention to the animals this time around, but considering how he's just been picking up things out of the blue lately, I think something like that won't be far behind.

Speaking of which...he has been picking up a lot lately. The crawling thing is becoming old hat, though he did take one header on the hardwood yesterday that left a little pinkish bruise on his chin. He's definitely realizing that there are a lot of things he can get into, and he takes every opportunity to do so. Pulling up is also getting to be much easier for him. He cruises a little bit using the furniture, but that's definitely still a work-in-progress. His big thing this weekend was self-feeding. We've been working on Cheerios for a while, but he really seemed to start figuring it out when we tried the Gerber puffs. We now have sweet potato and banana ones, and he really seems to like them. I don't know if the shape made them easier than Cheerios or if it just started clicking from all the times I helped him put one in his fingers and guided it into his mouth, but he's getting pretty good. It's a messy job, though, since he usually has to stick half his hand in his mouth to release it safely, and his mouth is usually already messy from his food, but it's nice to see him make that step. I'm still not courageous enough to give him his own spoon, though. One of these days. He's also doing much better with the sippy cup. He still has lazy moments where it's dribbling down his chin, but he's getting there. He can do the "hard" ones now, too, not just the take-n-toss ones that taught him how to use them. We had milk in one for the first time today, too. He wasn't nursing well again this weekend--so frustrating--so I decided to put some breastmilk in one and see how it went. He did pretty good. And finally, he is such a meat eater. I've been trying to find as many different baby foods as possible with meat because each meat we've done he's loved, and I think that's a good thing to work into his diet these days. I've found a bunch of different ones at different stores, and look forward to broadening his diet as we go along.

So, thus ends a busy weekend. It was fun but I'm not sure any of us really got much rest. Off to another week of work...