Lions, Tigers & Bears-Oh My!

On Sunday, we managed to squeeze in family time at the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler. We got up early and made it to the zoo about 10:00. It was really nice for about the first 30 minutes or so. There was a nice breeze and the sun wasn't beating down on us too much. But after 30 minutes of pushing the stoller up and down the hilly sidewalks, I was hot and tired! We tried to document Gibson's first zoo trip with lots of pictures. In most of the pictures, Jason & I are trying everything to bribe Gibson to actually look at the camera. You can guess that we didn't receive much cooperation. Oh well!

Gibson was excited to see the zoo. Can't you tell? It looks like he's tasting the air. We had just left a parrot exhibit that he really liked. However, I managed not to get a picture of Gibson with the parrot.

Here we are posing in front of an exhibit (although I don't remember which one and Jason didn't get the animal in the picture).
He was seriously checking out the monkey in this one (i think). Here we are in front of the penguins. Gibson really liked it when they shook their whole bodies.
Jason got a close-up of the giraffe!
Here we are with the giraffe! As you can tell, Gibson had NO interest in taking pictures of any sort. He was completely focused on seeing the elephants.

Finally, we found the elephants! Here's Jason & Gibson with the elephants.

And here we are with the elephants!
Jason & Gibson checking out the rhinoceros.
After the rhinos & elephants, we visited the pink flamingos. I just knew Gibson would think that the flamingos were funny. Plus he likes to say the word "pink". He liked them okay until they squawked. After that, it was all over. He wanted nothing to do with them. I tried to get him to sit down on the edge of the exhibit and take a picture with the pink birds. He would have none of that. He ran away as fast as his little legs would take him. After the traumatizing few minutes with the flamingos, he hated the rest of the birds. He wanted to be carried through the bird exhibits.
Jason tried to sit him down so he could walk. Yeah....that didn't happen.

We did find a little playground there for him to play on. It had sandboxes (which he would go no where near), tunnels to crawl through (that didn't happen either) and a truck for him to drive (this one he loved).

He's such a good driver!

He's letting Jason in the truck on this one.

Father & son going for a drive :)

After the truck, Gibson was in better spirits. The next thing we came to was the petting zoo. At the circus a few months ago, Gibson pet and fed the goats. He got a big kick out of it. We thought we'd give it a try. This next picture you can see Gibson trying to crawl up Jason to escape from the "killer" goat. He was not a fan of the goat!

He was thrilled to be leaving the goats. However, he always kept an eye on them to make sure they were not coming anywhere near him.

To me, this look said "By no means are you to take me anywhere near another goat!".

After petting the goats, Jason and Gibson washed their hands. This was probably one of Gibson favorite parts of the zoo. You can tell he is really checking out the monkey!

Of course, he wipes his hands on his shirt. Typical boy huh?

After yet another traumatizing event (at the petting zoo), we thought we would end the zoo trip on a high note and go back to the parrot that he liked so much at the beginning. Here is his reaction to the parrot the 2nd time. I guess his experience with the other birds left a bad taste in his mouth for the parrot as well. Oh well, it was worth a try.

On our way out, I wanted to get a family pic of our trip to the zoo. In hindsight, we should have done this at the beginning of the trip. Gibson was ready to go!

Finally, we're in the truck in the air conditioning! Does he look a little tired?

Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles

I'm pretty proud of myself. Another post and it hasn't even been a month since my last one. Don't expect this every time. :)

Here's a cute little snap shot that I couldn't resist posting. This is how I found my two guys the other morning!

Today, we played outside as a family. We waited until about 7:30 or so once it cooled off a little. So it was only about 95 degrees instead of 105 degrees. :)

You already know from previous posts that Gibson loves to swing. Today, we added bubbles! Gibson got this snazzy bubble blower for his birthday. It's another one of those great inventions! It saves me from hyperventalating. :) Anyways, Gibson really liked the bubbles falling on him while he was swinging. He liked to pop the bubbles with his head. Afterwards, he was pretty slimy. But it was worth it!

You'll soon see that everytime I tried to take a pic, the bubbles would be right in front of his face. The only pic that doesn't have a bubble in his face is one that Jason took and it's pretty dark. Again, i just wanted to show my excellent photography skills at work!

Jason's darker pic but without bubbles in Gibson's face.

Reaching for the bubbles!

Can you find the little boy's face in this picture?

This should catch you up!

Here's a few more pics and a quick update. I thought I had a lot more pics to post but it seems I can remember taking pictures that I didn't actually take. What can I say....I'm getting old. :(

For his birthday, we bought Gibson a swing set. With all the rain that we've got, he hasn't been able to play on it too much. However, the last few weeks, he's been making up for time lost. The pics of him swinging are really blurry. I'm sure the cause of that is probably the photographer but we're also going to blame it on the fact that he likes to swing really fast and as high as possible.

This first pic you can see a smile somewhere between the blur and the rope of the swing.

This picture shows just how great a photographer I am. :)

Gibson laughing at Jason swinging.

He likes to climb up the ladder all by himself. He's always so proud when he gets to the top.

The poor kid.....it looks like I haven't fed him in weeks.

Success! At this point, he starts all over again just like it's the first time.

Here's a few assorted pics that I thought were cute.

Gibson cruising in the front yard.

The kid never watches where he is going.

Playing with the Elmo work bench (thanks to the mccarter family!)

Jason & Gibson tickling the ivories at Mamaw's house in Hughes Springs.

When Nana & Poppy were in Texas, we visited Poppy's dad's house where Gibson got to play with the goats.

See....goats!

I don't think you can tell but I'm trying to help Gibson feed the goats in this pic. We're holding a small branch with leaves on it that apparently the goats had an appetite for. Gibson didn't much care that the goats kept tugging at the branch while he was trying to hold it.

Next, we actually got into the pasture with the goats. (this is nothing short of a miracle for people who know my experiences with goats.) Poppy "tackled" this poor little goat using his own head. I'm pretty sure there were easier ways but whatever works!

I'm not sure whose idea this was but I somehow ended up petting the goat. What you won't do for your kids huh?

At least me petting the goat convinced Gibson to try and pet the goat which was the whole purpose of Poppy catching the goat. (I know it probably doesn't look like Gibson is convinced to pet the goat. Especially since my hand looks like is forcing his hand to touch the goat. But really, he WANTED to pet the goat.) After the petting of the goat, we called it a day and went home ...smelling lovely.

Gibson loves socks! While it wasn't his first word, "socks" was definitely one of the first few. In this pic, he has found a pair of Jason's socks. (this pic reminds me of leg-warmers in the '80's.)

Just in the last few weeks, Gibson has started wearing his own cap ever now and then. He likes to wear Jason or Papaw's caps. But usually he won't wear a hat that actually fits him. So when I found him wearing his own cap, I grabbed the camera. (just ignore the chocolate milk on his chin.)

These pictures where he looks so sweet and innocent kill me. I need to wallpaper my house with pics like this one so when he's throwing one of his infamous 2 year old tantrums, I'll have a reminder of how good a kid he can be.

A Whole Lot of Stuff....

It's been quite a while since my last (somewhat over-dramatic) post. We've been very busy. I'll try and catch you up but it'll probably take several posts. :) I've been keeping Payden on the days that I'm at home with Gibson. Gibson & Payden are absolutely fascinated with Baby Einstein videos. I'm not quite sure what is so great about them but whoever invented Baby Einstein is a genius!

Here they are intrigued with the On the Farm Baby Einstein movie.

Gibson is laughing at the puppets in the Baby Einstein movie. Again, i don't understand it but greatly appreciate it.

Here the boys are watching Little Einstein (a close cousin to Baby Einstein and still greatly appreciated). Gibson likes to get as close as possible to the TV. I'm constantly pulling him back from the TV. I guess he thinks he might miss something if he's not exactly 1" away from the screen. But, apparently, that only applies to Gibson. He did not appreciate Payden getting that close to the TV. He kept pushing Payden's hands off the entertainment center which made him fall on his bottom. Then Gibson would get behind him and pull him away from the TV. He's soooo bossy!

Gibson's Nana and Poppy came "home" to Texas from North Carolina. They were able to visit for a couple of weeks. While Nana was down, we went to Gran's house (Gibson's great grand-mother) to visit Jason's family. We had a house full. I think I counted close to 30 at one point. Gibson was a little overwhelmed at first but settled in pretty quick. He couldn't have been happier since he was able to play outside for 2 days straight. For some reason, Gran's house didn't have mosquitoes the size of birds waiting to feast on fresh meat (mainly me). We went swimming (which I don't have any pics of. not sure how that happened.) and played a vicious tournament of badminton. by the way, I'm officially the worst badminton player in the world. The next several pics are from our visit at Gran's house.

Nana brought Gibson a four-wheeler all the way from North Carolina. He LOVES it. He drove it all over the place at Gran's. He thinks it's hilarious to "speed" through the yard. Here Gibson is "drinking (juice) and driving" while 2nd Cousin Avery tries to hold him back and 2nd Cousin Braden directs him where to go. He appreciated the help for about a minute at which point he lost interest in the whole thing.

Gibson decided he was boycotting clothes all together this day. I did convince him to leave on his diaper.
Gran has a goldfish pond and Gibson liked to feed the goldfish. Here he is telling the goldfish "Good Morning" since he decided to wake up at 6:20 am.
Here's the blurry hand wave. :)

OK....these stupid pictures are not in chronological order like I thought they were. That's aggravating.
Anyways, moving right along. Gibson's favorite uncle and one of his favorite two aunts bought a swimming pool. Joshua, Jessica and I put it together in what felt like triple digit temperatures while Gibson watched his Little Einstein movie in the air conditioned car (parked directly beside the pool. I decided the gas waste would be worth my sanity and a swimming pool.)

Once we got the pool together, we stuck Gibson in while we filled it up. He wasn't too sure about it at first. I kept re-assuring him it was a great big bathtub but he wasn't buying it. Eventually, he assisted in filling the pool with water. He's such a big help.

After about 2 minutes of helping, he was ready to go. (I'm amazed at how fast this kid can shimmy up a ladder.)

Gibson enjoyed the 4th of July parade this year showing off his new haircut (which kept him nice and cool). He's looks so patriotic, huh?
Gibson showing Daddy some love!
As usual, I can get one looking but not the other. Oh well!
To be continued....