Leanna & The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

It's just been one of those days. Ugh. First, Aviva woke up with the nastiest diaper in the entire world! Let's just say it was full from front to back with little room to spare - actually, there was no room to spare as things spilled up and over the back of her diaper and onto her onesie. Gross!

Breakfast was fine - we're trying to get Aviva to drink from a sippy cup/sports bottle for her milk rather than a bottle and she's doing very well. She's also getting more and more frustrated during the day that she can't walk as much as she wants to. For instance, she wants to walk to the kitchen, but she can't walk unless she's holding onto something and then she can't find anything to hold on to, so she gets upset. Soon enough, baby girl - soon enough.

I corralled the dog and the baby after breakfast and off we went on our walk. We drove a few miles away to one of our favorite walking trails and took off; of course, not before changing Aviva's diaper for the second time in less than one hour. Changing a poop diaper in the car is no fun! So anyway, we're on our walk and of course, we were LITERALLY at the farthest point from the car when it started to rain. And not just a light drizzle - a downpour! Aviva was fine because she was bundled up and under her super-huge BOB visor but the dog and I got drenched. I debated if I should start running just to get back to the car faster but then I figured that it would be better for me to get wet than to drop dead from a heart attack!

Also, despite the fact that I only have EXACTLY seven days until I'm eligible to get a new, free phone, they won't let me get it early. What a great way to show customer appreciation, AT&T! So alas, I must hang on to my broken phone (which totally got tossed into a puddle this morning while I was trying to put everyone into the car as fast as possible after the walk) for one more week. Oh well, I'll live.

And that is that. I think I'm going to go upstairs and take a nap. But maybe I'll watch something crappy on Bravo first.

Time Goes Too Quickly

Our friend Mark came to visit this weekend from North Carolina. There was a teaching conference in Boston that he flew in for and both Mark and Neal went. It was great to see him again and was sad to see him go. I told him that as soon as I get my new phone (May 21st - wahoo!), I'll be better about calling him. And everyone else for that matter - I don't know what it is - maybe working so many years where my main responsibility was being on the phone from 8am-5pm every day - has soured me on phone conversations. Ugh - I'm surprised people still call me because I'm bad at calling people back! :)

While Neal & Mark were in Boston, Aviva and I had a busy day. Friday morning we went to the zoo for a little while (just basically to see the elephants and the giraffes!), went to Kohl's, and then went to the fabric store. After Aviva's nap, we went to a little local shop and bought her some new shoes and then went to the baby park.

After Aviva's 15 minutes of swinging - which, she totally loves now! - she went down the slide a few times. After that, there was a push toy next to the slide that she was attracted to and she went over, stood up, and began to walk by herself!!! Well, by herself with the assistance of the toy - but still! I was so proud of her! She whizzed around the park for about 40 minutes and there I was, the silly mom who was clapping and cheering for her the entire time! Oh well! She took some spills but got right back up and kept on going. Hopefully she'll be walking on her own soon!

Ruh-Roh

So, I've been soooo good for the past three weeks. I've walked every single day (I logged 19.1 miles this week) and I think I've eaten more fruits and vegetables in the past three weeks than I have in the past three years. Who knew that I would like zucchini so much?!?

And then I had a bad day. Harumph. Well, really just a bad night and admittedly it wasn't really even that bad. But I caved. And I went to McDonalds. And had the 2 cheeseburger meal with fries. And a vanilla ice-cream cone. And some Ben & Jerry's ice-cream. And a few Milk Duds. Whoops!

Tomorrow it's back to the grindstone but for right now, I feel very, very gross! Alanis Morrisette said it best. "You live. You learn."

The Calm Before The Storm

Ahhhh . . . . it was a beautiful, sunny, 70-something day today, but tomorrow - think again! It's supposed to get up to (and including) 90 degrees tomorrow! Blech! That does not make for a fun walk. Ever since I got my BOB, i have been walking every single day; the first week, Aviva & I walked 14 miles, the second week we walked 15 miles, and this week, it will be well over 16. It's easy to keep it up when you have a super-expensive jogging stroller waiting in the car to motivate you!

Aviva's favorite thing to do these days is ride in the super-fun carts at the grocery store. You know the ones - the ones that are shaped like cars, the ones that have 2 seats, and the ones that are teeny-tiny carts. She loves to beep the horn on the car carts and she'll wave at everyone as we walk past. Every time people wave to her, she usually would wave AFTER we had walked past, but today, finally, she waved bye-bye when the CVS clerk said good-bye to her!

Tomorrow is storytime - hopefully we don't get too hot on our walk!

Are You Kidding Me?

Oh geez - 87 degrees today?!? Are you kidding me? We went on our walk this morning (which turned out to be a little over 4 miles instead of 3 - whoops!) at 9:15 and it was already hot & sweaty outside. Well, that may have just been me, but it was really warm! The poor dog was ready for a gallon of water and a cool place to sleep the second we got home. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 70, then Tuesday it's supposed to be high 80s again, then after that in the low 60s for the rest of the week. Thank goodness we don't get tornadoes up here!!!

Happy Zoo Day!

Since it is absolutely beautiful out today (read: 70 and not a cloud in the sky), we ventured out to the zoo. It's only about 10 minutes away from our house and was the first time we have gone. What a fun trip! For a small state zoo, there were actually quite a few animals - elephants, giraffes, zebras, bears, camels, and lots of other four & two-legged creatures. There was even a quasi-petting zoo there, but the animals were behind wooden fences and you couldn't feed them.

Here, Aviva is petting a very friendly sheep. It's wool was not nearly as soft as I thought it would be and instead was just one big mat. I would like to be there when they shear that thing! Can you imagine the sweaters you could knit out of its coat?!? There was also an "exotic" type of cow, a donkey, two baby goats, a wild pig, rabbits, and a few hens or chickens, I think. We made sure to wash our hands really well at the hand-washing station after we were done petting all of the animals!



I think Aviva's favorite animal was the elephant. There were three elephants and it was feeding time, so it was neat to watch the elephants pulling their hay/grass out of the mesh bag atop a pole. Aviva was fascinated by the elephants, especially when they would stick their trunk up into the bag for food and then put their trunk in their mouth. We stood there for nearly ten minutes just watching the elephants eat!

When Aviva wakes up from her nap, I think we're going to take a walk and go fly our kite! Yay!

She Will Be Missed

Zoe(y), Neal's childhood dog, has passed away. She collapsed last night while taking a walk and she crashed immediately upon arrival to the emergency
vet's office. She had a good 15 years though with a great family. She was a great dog who loved the simple things - tennis balls, having her ear rubbed, and going on walks. Zoe(y) will be missed!