Maternity photos

My good friend Emily, who is an incredibly talented photographer, shot some maternity photos of me in January. Despite her talent, she couldn't do anything about my bad hair day! :) Still, I know I'll always treasure these pre-Abby photos. Here are my favorites... I really wanted a shot of Eli giving Abby a kiss. We had made a little game of it at home, and he loved it. Of course, once we were standing in front of a camera, it was a no-go!

I think this one will probably be framed in Abby's room...

Thanks, Emily!

Blog slacker

I know I haven't been a great blogger lately...for the record, I'm not just being lazy. A few weeks ago, after being sick the entire month of February, I managed to dislocate a rib coughing (yes, really!). Let me tell you, that is a painful injury! Typically they would just pop the rib back into place, instantly relieving the pain. However, because of the location of the rib and its proximity to Abby, they weren't able to do that. I am SO glad to say that the pain has diminished significantly with a combination of medication, physical therapy, and acupuncture. (Side-note, a huge THANK YOU to Joe, a good friend of ours and an amazing Physical Therapist, for all of your help). I have my third acupuncture appointment on Thursday, and the acupuncturist is confident that I'll be pain free after that treatment. I sure hope he's right! So, all that to say sorry for the lack of posting recently. Of course, I can't make any promises that I'll do much better over the next couple of weeks/months!

Zoo day!

With all the sunshine we've been enjoying and Ryan's new freedom on Saturdays with basketball season being over, we had to head to the zoo! Just the day before we went, a new monkey escaped from its exhibit. Fortunately Eli was content playing with the "pretend monkeys" that greet visitors at the entrance! It was a really great day together as a family. Eli had a really fantastic day, due in part to the fact that we've been home-bound with nasty colds most of the month. We also spent some time exploring parts of the zoo we haven't really spent time in before, which was a lot of fun. Eli's two new favorite areas are the Habitat Discovery Loop and the Zoomazium. The HDL is a really cool little trail through a wooded area where they've created kid-sized versions of various animal habitats. There's a bird's nest, turtle shells, burrows, spider webs, etc. that kids can climb in, around, on, and through. There are also a couple of slides...I'm assuming these are just for fun, and not some animal's actual living quarters! :) We also hit the Zoomazium, the zoo's indoor play area for little ones. Eli found an even bigger slide here, and spent the rest of our visit climbing up the "boulder" to slide down this fast, curvy slide. He had a blast! As usual, one of the highlights of Eli's day was "riding on Dada" - he didn't stop saying "wheee!" from the Zoomazium (at the back of the zoo) all the way to the car. He was also delighted to see the peacock on our way out; he remembered seeing it on our way in during our last visit to the zoo and had been looking for it throughout our visit.

Hooray for sunshine, family time, and the zoo!