Fun at the Zoo

Last week we celebrated my GLORIOUS spring break with a family trip to the zoo.

Lately, Noah has become a huge fan of animals.  All animals, to be exact.  You remember that early on, Bubs took a liking to lions.  Well...that love has grown to include giraffes, bears, penguins, tigers, gorillas, alligators, whales, hippos, rhinos, dolphins, monkeys, elephants...any animal that runs, swims, or crawls is OK with my Little Man.

This excursion to the zoo was the most fun we've had so far.  Bubs just LOVED every animal.  He would point and sign the animals name and want us to make the noise the animal makes.

The bears were out sunning themselves.

The mama giraffe was taking care of her new little calf.

Look at how much Bubs has grown in one year.

Noah just loves the seals.  He claps and splashes in the air whenever he sees one.

 

Watching those cute seals.  Daddy-O...why are you interrupting me and trying to take a picture?  I've got seals to watch!

Cute little kangaroo.

Notice the horse in Mr. Man's hand as he gets close and personal with a lion.  Boy does he love those lions.

Bubs just loves the zoo!

Look Out World

Noah's got a step stool and he knows how to use it.

Why should I stand on the floor?  It's so low to the ground!  I prefer it up here...much higher...much better view!

Noah Was Here

Noah was here... 

With his signature bowl hat.

It's Officially Spring Break!

What better way to start Mama's Spring Break than by cleaning off the splash table and breaking it in?

Splash!

Splash!

Daddy is trying to teach Noah how to mow the lawn...too bad he only likes to push his truck around.

What???  Mow the lawn???  Nah, I'll just leave that up to you guys.

Water = happiness!

Rocks are almost as cool as water.

Too bad Mama and Daddy-O won't let me throw them.

Hats

Noah has been infatuated with hats lately.  Not the nice soft, handmade kind...the hard plastic, bowl kind.

Two bowls at once.  How impressive!

Walking with bowls requires quite a bit of concentration!

If you can't find a bowl...just reach for a bucket.

Peek-a-boo!

Gotta love the attire...bucket hat, soaking wet t-shirt, and diaper.  Kitty is looking on in disbelief.

Food, glorious food!

Did you hear them?  The angels.  They were singing today.  If you were in the 93720 area I'm sure you did.  The heavens actually opened up to allow the "blenderized diet" angels to come down and deliver a little gift.  A little gift from heaven. {perhaps a tad dramatic}

If you remember, back in September, we started Noah on a dairy/soy free diet.  So far, after 216 days, we have had tremendous success.  Bubs has significantly reduced his vomiting {only once in a great while...or if he accidentally gets soy...but that's another story for another time} and is growing and thriving on the diet we've created for him.

The problem with our old way of preparing Noah's food {putting loads of food into the crockpot and cooking the living daylights out of it and then blending and straining it} was that we were loosing so many good nutrients as well as tons of fiber by cooking and straining it.  I did quite a bit of research online and found several blogs and websites of families with g-tube fed kiddos.  They all hailed the benefits of an amazing blender called the Vitamix.  Kc and I decided that our Mother's Day and Father's Day gifts to each other would be in the form of a blender.  A Vitamix Blender to be exact.

Well...the heavens opened up...and it came...and I am in LOVE.  Pure and utter love.  L.O.V.E!

It is truly amazing!  While it is not the quietest thing around {sounds like you are mowing the lawn in the kitchen when you turn it on} it does the most awesome job of pulverizing food and making it thin enough to put through Bub's g-tube.   

Our first experiment was with chicken breast, rice, kidney beans, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, bananas, peaches, and rice milk.  All the fruits and veggis were raw when we put them in the blender.  Kc flipped on the switch and let the blender do it's thing for about three minutes.  When he poured the "liquid gold" through our finest strainer...it went through effortlessly.  Can you believe it?!?  We have had ZERO problems with the food flowing through Noah's g-tube or going through the pump. 

 

It is simply the MOST WONDERFUL piece of technology in our house.  If there was a fire, Kc and I would grab Noah, Sierra, Kitty, our important documents, and the Vitamix.  It is simply that great!

We decided that Bubs couldn't have all the fun, so for dinner, Kc did a bit of chopping

and threw it all in the blender.

  

Meanwhile, I did a bit of toasting in the oven

and we put it all together.  Pure harvest bliss!

Verbs

Both Noah's sign teacher and his speech teacher are working on adding verbs to his sign vocabulary.  What better way to talk about actions than to show Bubs pictures of him doing the action.  Here are some of the shots we've got so far...

bathing

 catching

 climbing

 more climbing

 hugging

 painting

 reading

 rolling

 running and kicking

 sitting

 sliding

 splashing

 throwing