Animal/ Zoo stuff

Right now…. Baby edition

September 19, 2013 by Jess Leave a Comment

I thought it would be fun to document what Ava is loving right now. (since I’m really not good at keeping a scrapbook for her…yet)

She loves grapes, this is the one food she will not throw on the floor. No sharing grapes with the puppies! She also loves broccoli.
Peanut butter. She tried this for the first time a couple days ago and it was a huge hit. I’m glad we got that trial over with and no allergic reaction.
The chickens. Especially one chicken in particular – our Barred Rock chicken, “Nuna”. I don’t know what it is but she and Ava have some sort of connection. They literally run to each other and Nuna lets her pet her and everything. Kind of weird yes, but very cute.
Slides. She got to slide down a little slide at a playdate last week and she loved it. We have a small Little Tykes slide at home so I moved it into the backyard for her and she wants to go on it constantly.
Straw cups. Finally she learned how to suck stuff up from a straw, maybe 2 weeks ago now. She’s a little pro now.
Still her 2 Wubbanubs. We have the frog and the elephant. Basically its a pacifier stuck to a small stuffed animal. She adores these things, but only “needs” them at naptime, bedtime and when we are in the car. They really calm her down so I don’t mind one bit.
Maracas. Still LOVES these. I found some cute disney ones at the dollar store the other day. So now she has 2 sets.
Walking. Yes, my baby is now a walker. Officially took off on her own about a week ago on Sept 10. Now there is no stopping her!
Still loves our iphones and the remote control. Some things never change.
Gymboree class – she has so much fun there!
Board books – lately she always wants to have one in her hand and she carries it all over the place.

This is “Boba” (named after one of our real frogs)

Here she is with her maracas and her favorite chicken friend “Nuna”. She also took her very first unassisted steps this day – guess where? To get to the chicken!

At Gymboree class with daddy. I love the smiles on both their faces 🙂

here she is with the elephant wubbanub “Eli”. It was almost nap time so I let her have him.

Here she is on her slide, with a board book in her hand, and her chicken friends are running towards her. Just another day at “Ava’s Zoo”

Hanging out with her pal Norman.

Right now…

September 19, 2013 by Jess Leave a Comment

I am loving:

getting hugs from Ava – this tiny gesture alone is enough to make my entire day
the start of Fall. I love summer but I feel almost giddy with anticipation for the Fall to arrive!
fitting into clothes that I haven’t fit into in over 2 years
that it’s finally cooled off enough that I can start running outside again
craigslist. I sold the strollers we were no longer using and bought the one that I have been wanting all along. Finally found it on craigslist for a great deal and it was brand new!
family time. We have been making a consistent effort to get out as a family at least once or twice every week to explore somewhere new. Love.
snuggling with my dogs. I love early mornings when Angus gets into bed and cuddles with me. I hate that he is getting – dare I say the word – old.
pumpkin pie sugar free syrup. I won this last week for a challenge I’m in and it is SO good. I’ve been adding a little to my cappuchino’s – such a treat.
kettle bell workouts. Ok I’m not really loving them – they are darn hard!! But I’m loving how sore I am after cause it shows how much it makes my muscles work.
our backyard. I just love it. I love going out there with Ava during the day to visit whatever animals happen to be out there. I love that the chickens will come up to us and let us pet them. I love how Norman throws himself down in front of Ava hoping that she will rub his belly. I love watching Angus run and play with Moose like he is a puppy again. I love how Zoey joins in too sometimes! I love how Steve is usually out there working on some project (right now it’s the raccoon’s new enclosure) and how happy Ava gets when she sees him. I love how so many of 0ur animals can be out there together and everyone seems at peace with each other. (ie: the dogs do not chase the chickens! I still find this amazing.)
and finally, this is something I will never get tired of. I love watching my husband and our daughter together. Makes my heart so happy it feels like it will burst sometimes.

Just one of those days…

September 15, 2013 by Jess 2 Comments

You know, just one of those days when things just don’t seem to go right at all. Yep, that’s today.

It started out being a miserable rainy day from the moment I woke up. I planned to clean the fridge out for today’s Organization Challenge at Homeketeers so while Ava had her morning nap, I cleaned the entire fridge top to bottom. I also scrubbed the stove, the sink, the counters, basically the whole kitchen as I was suddenly on a cleaning spree.

I was going to make waffles for everyone so I went downstairs and found the waffle iron only to discover that someone must have dropped it as a large piece on the top was broken – right over the main electrical box. I plugged it in and turned it on and it immediately shut itself off. Not repairable, so into the garbage can it went. No waffles today.

So I tried a new recipe for Ava for her lunch so while that was cooking, I put together (what I thought would be) a fun activity for her to do when she woke up. Finger painting! I know, I have a 1 year old, but don’t worry I’m not that stupid. I know she can’t really finger paint as it will all wind up in her mouth, her hair, her clothes, and everywhere else she can reach. So I made her a mess free type of finger painting (see the post I did on it here). I was so excited and had it all ready for her when she woke up, which was minutes later.

Well, she was not enthused with this new recipe and promptly threw all the food on the floor after one bite. *sigh*

Next up was letting her play with the finger paint. That amused her for maybe 5-10 seconds tops. I think I had more fun with it showing her what to do. She was not impressed.

Then I thought well lets not waste all the finger paint, so I opened one of the ziplock bags, put her hand in it and tried to get a nice imprint of her hand on this little canvas I had bought awhile ago. Yeah right. You can’t even tell it is a hand imprint! So I stamped her fingers on it again in a few places and voila – here is Ava’s first “finger painting”.

I also had found (while I was looking for the finger paint), a couple of those hand print plaster kits that I was saving for her. Perfect timing, I thought. I will get an imprint of her hand in the smaller one and her foot in the larger one. I read the instructions and mixed together the plaster, then poured it into the tin. Perfect, now all that was left to do was place her little hand in the wet plaster, pull it out and I’ll have a cute little hand imprint, right? WRONG

She wanted to grab the plaster. We must have tried 10 times and every time I lowered her hand into the plaster, she would either curl all her fingers up or grab the plaster. I gave up so this was our end result:

For the other one, I added too much water to the plaster and it was way too liquidy. I figured we’d let it harder for a bit and then I’d put her foot in it and at least she couldn’t grab the plaster with her foot. So I left that on the counter in its little tin to harden up.

Meanwhile Ava was fussing so I cut up a nectarine and let her have that for a snack. She normally loves all fruit and ate about half of it, then promptly grabbed her tray and threw the entire thing on the floor. So then I did what any mom would do. Any mom with a pig in the house that is. I called Norman over so he could eat all the food off the floor. Wonderful. While he was “pigging out” (haha), I took Ava to wash her hands and then I got her busy with some toys in her room. An hour went by, then we came back into the kitchen to get her some milk and I notice Norman rummaging around in my purse. He had knocked it down off the table and was searching for snacks. I had completely forgot I left him alone in the kitchen! Then I see one of Steve’s new work boots – all chewed up!!!! Now there is a story behind this as well. Steve read somewhere that a good way to stretch out new work boots is to fill a bag with wet oats, then stuff it into the shoe, and put them in the freezer. So apparently he had taken them out of the freezer this morning and put them on the floor in the kitchen. The oats in the bags are still in the boots as you have to wait for them to defrost before you can remove them from the boot. Norman found the oats and figured it would make a good lunch. So he chewed up one of Steve’s boots trying to get the oats out. He succeeded as I found no oats but about 20 pieces of the ziplock bag strewn about the kitchen. Now there is one completely ruined boot, and it’s totally my fault for not watching the pig.

I clean up the mess of the boot and walk by the counter where I left the other plastic thing for her foot imprint. I feel it to see if it’s gotten any harder. Yep, sure has. Completely hard. Darn. So that one is ruined.

I give up.

When you take a pig for a walk…

May 20, 2013 by Jess Leave a Comment

you get a lot of looks. Ah yes, Norman, our very lovable pig, has taken walks all over Illinois. As one of our most popular show animals and one of the most requested animals, Norman leads a busy life. We have walked him on boulevards downtown Chicago and made stops to take him into inner city parks. People have stopped cars and gotten out to see him. He really does love the attention though, he’s quite the ham. Ha, see what I did there?

Our little piglet is not so little anymore, however. Over the winter, he soared to over 70 pounds, outgrowing not 1 but 2 of his travel crates. He had a nice hiatus from shows for several months but he just started doing shows again. We bought him a new enormous crate and luckily he still has some growing room in it. We figured we need to get him used to walking on his leash and harness again in public, so we recently went on a walk to a local forest preserve. What an adventure that was!

Zoey is 9!

May 5, 2013 by Jess Leave a Comment

Happy Birthday to my sweet girl Zoey, she is 9 years old today! She spent her birthday doing what she loves most: alternating her time between lying on the couch on a pillow and running through the backyard on this gorgeous sunny day.

Happy Birthday Zo-Zo!

And just because I love this photo of all 3 of my pups, here’s one more:

Not a Creature Was Stirring…

April 6, 2013 by Jess Leave a Comment

…except for a mouse! Yes it’s that time of night where it’s quiet all through the house. I make my last “rounds” to make sure all the lights are off, and to check the animals that are currently in the house. (the others are out in their own space – our converted garage – which is one huge animal room now complete with its own heat, AC and ventilation).

Norman the pig is sound asleep already buried under a couple of his blankets. It’s crucial to be quiet while he’s sleeping as even so much as opening the fridge or rustling a bag of popcorn then that’s it! He’ll pop right up and start squealing until I give him something else to eat. And trust me, he does not need more to eat tonight. This ~~little~~ big piggy has been happily munching on the grass outside for hours and hours the last several days. Now that the weather has finally smartened up, he’s been wanting to spend more time in the backyard. However, when he waddles back into the house, he is so bloated – he actually looks pregnant!! Oh piggy. And all that grass gives him nasty pig farts. Nasty I tell ya! He sure knows how to clear a room fast.

Harriet, our newest hedgehog, has also buried herself under her blankets but she’ll be up soon to have her dinner.

I walk through the living room that is lit up by a red glow in the far corner – it’s the heat lamp for our little chicks: Nuna and Lydia. They are 3 and a half weeks now and getting big indeed. It’s amazing how fast they grow. They look like miniature chickens now but they look quite awkward as well. Those awkward teenage weeks I guess…. It will soon be time to introduce them to our full grown chicken, Drumstick. Afterall that’s why we got them, so she would have friends. Her buddy Popcorn was killed by a weasel in our backyard a couple months ago 🙁

On the other side of the living room is our special needs duck, Lotto, who is nestled all down on her blanket, with her beak tucked under one wing.

The dogs are all in our room already, happy to have gone to bed already. Zoey is on her own bed next to my side of the bed. Angus is lying on a blanket on the floor by the closet (but he’ll wind up in our bed sometime during the night), and Moose is lying right in the middle of our bed, of course.

The baby monitor is on my bedside table and shows that Ava is sound asleep in her crib. I can hear the sound of the ocean coming from her sound machine. Brings back memories from when I was living with my parents when they had waterfront property. I actually went to sleep every night hearing the waves for real. Wow, do I ever miss that.

And the only creature that is actually stirring – it is a mouse! Our geriatric mouse, Snowflake, who resides in our office, is awake and running in her wheel.

Now it’s time to jump in bed and watch one of the shows we’ve recorded on the DVR. This is the only time we have to catch up on shows each night – once everyone/ everything else is asleep. We’re lucky though if we manage to stay up a whole hour.

Sweet dreams!