Dinosaurs had it easy.

Well, until extinction.

 

 I guess that puts life into perspective a little... 

They wouldn't have survived toddlers, anyway.

Jurassic period? Triassic period? All those other dinosaur periods I can't remember - easy breezy compared to the Toddler Era.

A dinosaur's only mode of survival would have been the sneak attack for a little appetizer.

 That appetizer, btw, is sweet and charming and feeds on hot dog buns, yogurt drops, and love.

Which makes sense... the parents fed on cotton candy that'd been toted around under a blanket all day while the mini-tizer scattered breast milk throughout the zoo marking his territory (ok so it was a big spill... but only our friends knew it was people juice and not cow product).

Wouldn't life be so much easier if we just had to lay a few eggs and tada?

As long as those eggs were proportional to my body size, though. Ouchy.

 

That's more like it.

Which are you more frightened of?

 

 We did see some real animals, which both kids enjoyed! We stayed at the zoo for 6.5 hours and walked 2 continents ("Africa" and "North America").

 Mara loved being in the pilot's/driver's seat.

Isaac was happy just to be a passenger.

 We spent some quality time with family and friends.

 

 Sometimes, the boys (Elam and Isaac) were more interested in each other than the zoo animals. Who knew!? But they definitely got more out of trip than I expected.

 And my little mo-love-bug. She was amazing. She's already asking when we can go again.

 Isaac says next time, YOU are coming with us.

Thanks for reading! (Sorry, it's late and I'm out of creativity)

Hurray, it's May.

 So much for my series of small posts, huh? Well, you can update our 4 rounds of antibiotics to 6, since little man had a reaction to #4 (Cefdinir), completed #5, and is now on #6 after a successful installation (?) of ear tubes a few hours ago. All my pre- and post-surgery pictures are on my phone... but I never made his 11 month post so that's what you're getting.

Our photo shoot was not destined for a clean ending.

 Does this look like a happy little boy or what?

 It's hard for us to believe he's over 11 months now, his year mark is right around the corner! 11 months old, a pretty amazing little personality, and some tired parents (he's slept through the night I think twice ever).

You tend to overlook those long nights when he smiles, giggles, or chatters at you. He sounds like a little ewok! We walked into daycare the other day and he breathily screams 'MAMA DADA MAMA DADA" with his arms flailing. I couldn't wipe the grin off my face for like an hour.

 Do you recall the pictures of dirt-eating Mara? Yeah, I found them in my files and she was 17 months before she did that.

 TROUBLEMAKER!

 Yeah, he knows it.

 His hair is still somewhere between dirty blonde and red. He has long sprouts of it above his ears and a smidgen of mohawk on top, but it's not much.

 This is a preview of what I'll see when he's a little older, messing around in the yard or dad's shed or with a car. Dirty boy jeans.

 

 

 These blinds have been such temptations for both kiddos. We are extra careful with Isaac on this ledge, though, since this was how Mara had that blood tear! He is actually really great with his balance and hasn't face planted too many times.

 Definitely different kids, huh?

 In other news, we bought his first pair of Stride Rite shoes and his feet are so small (size 2) that they didn't make his size in the walking/hard-bottomed shoes and I had to get the soft soled shoes labeled for crib/crawling. He LOVES his shoes and if we take them off, he goes to find them. (He has to have them in order to move into the next classroom at daycare). He's also big into brushing his teeth, and doing WHATEVER his sister is doing. I think he is very proud he can do a lot of bigger kid things now - get to where he wants to go at super-crawl speed, pull up, balance while holding one armed onto something, he'll give high fives and sorta play patty-cake with me.

 He's big into eating paper - paper towels, toilet paper rolls, books, receipts. And I will tell him "Isaac! No thank you! No, no. We don't chew [books] [the dog] [the toilet bowl rim] [etc] and he stops what he's doing... turns around, and laughs and laughs and laughs at me. What the crap?!

 Silly man. Oh, did you notice in Mara's 11-month picture, she has 2 bottom teeth? (I can't see how many top ones she had). Yeah, Isaac has 4 bottom and 4 top. Someone at daycare exclaimed "Wow, he's got a mouthful of teeth!" Yup.

 I received these roses from Zack's boss for "being flexible with Zack's work schedule" or something to that nature. I thought they'd make a beautiful addition to our photos....

 

 Can you guess what happens? Yeah, I didn't take the after picture because I was chasing the Mississippi river down the window ledge. I think this was the day he had like 3 changes of clothes and a mid-MORNING bath.

 We occasionally have days like these. Cloudy with a strong chance of applesauce showers.

 He is very brave and getting much stronger with all his movements. Loves to pull up on everything and anything. He weighed 16.4 pounds at the surgery center this morning.

We're hoping that the ear tubes improve his appetite and sleep patterns. I am planning to stop nursing after his birthday, but we'll see how the night time goes. I am looking forward to not lugging the pump to/from work every day. I'm like a pack mule going in and out of work. HA! A pack mule and a milk cow. Sorry for the imagery.

Mara's doing great, too. I struggle to get pictures of her now-a-days because she is busy doing everything else. She asks a lot of questions and has great observations. She most recently used the phrases, "Oh, we invited them?" and "Will you stay here and keep me company?" and "When did God grow me?" We love her to PIECES and she's just growing up so quickly. I'll try to download a few pictures of her from my phone (I have way more on there because it's easier to whip it out and take a shot before she objects too heavily.

Thanks for all your prayers. :) and THANK YOU Aunt Claire for having a sleepover with Mara so she didn't have to be at the surgery center at 6 am this morning. Lifesaver.