A Nightly Visit From The Police

Big sigh and an even bigger yawn this morning! I didn't get much shut eye last night. The kids were really tired around 7pm when I wasn't ready yet to get them ready for bed. I was still getting the kitchen cleaned up from dinner, there was still some homework that i needed to correct and check, there was also some papers that Cassie needed to study and I needed to quiz her on everything concerning the Digestive System. Many difficult names and terms to remember.

So due to all this, I missed the kids window when they were tired, and before I got them in their pj's and got their milk ready it was almost 9pm and they got overtired and started to fuzz around. It took longer than normal to say the least to get them both into bed.

I spent some time here on the computer after going through some other homework from Cassie, and went to bed a little after midnight. I had just fallen into deep sleep when I woke up from ringing and banging on the front door. First time I thought that I was dreaming, but as I'm a very light sleeper, I couldn't imagine that I would have been asleep. A moment later, another door ringing and banging on the door. Checked my phone, 1.10am. Are you kidding me??!!

I jumped out in the hallway, meeting Chris that had fallen asleep on the sofa still watching golf when I went to bed, and he was just like me all startled what was going on. I got scared as this isn't normal for anyone, and especially not at this hour!

Carefully looking through the blinds next on the window next to the door - no here it's not that common with a peeking window in the door - and that was no way that we would just open the door like that not knowing who was outside.

Chris burst out, OMG it's the Police, and opened the door. Thousands of ideas come to mind in the few seconds it takes before we heard what he wanted. Can you even imagine what would have gone through my mind if this would have happened on any other night, when Chris would be working and I would be alone at home with the kids?!

He wanted to let us know that our garage was wide open and driving through the neighborhood, he'd seen this and wanted to alert us. There is a big thing about closing the garage even during daytime here, as many people have been robbed by trucks driving slowly through the neighborhoods and stopping and quickly loading up anything that seem to be out of value, and before you even realize it from inside the house, they are on their way again. So ofcourse, leaving the garage door open during night is nothing that we would want and we were happy, but very surprised to say the least of our notification through the officer in the middle of the night! Chris had forgotten to close it as he was going to still take out he garbage and then forgot about it. I got busy with the kids and then never went out in our laundry room or the garage to notice.

With pure luck, the kids didn't wake up even with this commotion and I was very happy about that, even if my luck didn't last very long.

It took me some time to fall back to sleep, and after sleeping for an hour or so, Isabella woke me up at 2.45am when she was crying. When I came into the room, she had had an accident in her bed and was all wet. It's so strange, she is totally potty trained now during the days, we don't even have diaper on her when we leave the house, and she never has any accidents anymore. The last couple of weeks, she has been dry most morning in her night diaper and gone straight to the bathroom in the morning. The last week, she has been dry EVERY morning, so I really thought that now it's the time, she is ready. She was also excited to go to bed in her pj's with underwear but no diaper. "I'm a big girl now mommy ain't I?" "I'm just not a baby anymore!", she told me.

But, somehow, of all nights, last night was the night she wouldn't stay dry and last night was the first night without diaper - such a shame to start that off like this and not with a happy success for her! ANYWAY, after cleaning her up and getting her dry (with diaper now) I just took her into our bed as I didn't want to turn on lights and start getting new bedding out in the middle of the night.

Tired, I finally was back in bed, but what happened? After just falling back in my deep sleep again- Ben woke me up with his crying at 4am. He had been sick in his bed and that never happens! Poor little man, got him cleaned up, new pj's and new bedding out of the closet, as I didn't want to take him into our bed to wake Isabella up and maybe have another accident in there with her in the bed, so I rather kept him in his room. Made the bed for him and put him back and he was fine, and went back to sleep after a while. To make sure that he wouldn't get sick again, I stayed in his room, and got a blanket on his sofa to be near in case he needed me.

Now it was almost 5am, when I checked my phone and I was tired! I slept for 1 1/2 hour, then my alarm went off at 6.30am to wake Cassie up for school. Ben woke up from the alarm, and got up and started to look like he was going to throw up again, but he laid back down and luckily went back to bed. Cassie got ready and off to school she went for the bus at 7.45am. Now I thought that while Ben went back to sleep, I could do the same, but of course Isabella woke up and that was it. No more sleep for mommy.

When Ben woke up about an hour later, he seemed fine, he was smiling and happy and wanted milk. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to give him milk, as it's not the best thing when kids are sick, but as he wanted it, I thought he wouldn't want it if he feels sick. He drank a few sips, and then he got sick all over the sofa, blankets and floor. Sigh!!

So there has been lots of cleaning here this morning. Not much help from Chris either, that left around that time for work. He's having training this whole day (which is supposed to be his Tuesday off, but every other Tuesday they have training..) and instead of being home at a reasonable time like normal training days, he'll be home much later as they have night shooting on the range after sunset. So it's going to be a long day! Luckily Ben doesn't seem to suffer too much, he feels a bit warm but no alarming fever (yet) and is playing. He'll be staying off the milk though today, and will be served toast and crackers with some diluted Gatorade.  And hopefully - this is it with sickness and hopefully Isabella won't get any bugs..

But I'm telling you - what a night!!

Into The Wild

 

A Day At The Phoenix Zoo

I'm slowly getting my pictures sorted out from our trip and here are the pictures from last Saturday, when we spent the day at the Phoenix Zoo. Perfect temperatures, and it was a bit chilly in the morning, so we all got dressed in jeans, but it was too hot! Around noon, it was already around 75F/25C and we were getting warm in our jeans. Luckily I had packed shorts for the little kids in the diaper bag, and they probably needed them most as they were running around so much, but I felt bad for Cassie, not having packed shorts for her.

The other times that we've been in Phoenix, we have never visited the Zoo, and I didn't know what to expect, it was a little smaller than the San Diego Zoo that is huge and very much spread out. This Zoo was great, everything was nice walking distance around and where you walked, you had animals on both sides, and they were close to the pathways, close to the fence, even if the areas wasn't always very small, it was built very nice, so the kids really could see everything! The experience was much better here than in San Diego, as there we walked and walked and so much we couldn't see, the animals were far away, the little kids could hardly see them, there wasn't animals along the way, but you had to walk a long distance, with nothing to see in between, I was not impressed when we were there last spring.

Here, we all loved it! It didn't matter that they maybe didn't have all kinds of animals, or not too many of each kind, it was nice, beautiful settings and the animals were enjoying themselves. As the weather was great, many of the animals were up and active, and not too hot in the shade somewhere. Here in Arizona, you have to do these activities during the winter, as it's too hot in summer.

As you can imagine, I loved taking pictures, and like I did in the entries about the Aquarium, I'll make two entries, one with the family and kids on the pictures and one with only animals, therefore not making it too long and not too boring with too many pictures. Here we go - come along to the Zoo with us!

First we decided to take the little train that went around the zoo to be able to get a feeling of where to go, what we might skip, what would be easy and interesting for the little ones. While we were waiting for the train to come back, they took about 30 minutes, Chris stood in line and I took the kids to watch the giraffes just across the "train station".  While waiting, Cassie sat down at the bench around the tree, and soon she had company on the bench. So sweet, the little ones enjoyed the rest on her legs acting as pillows.

Have I told you before that she's the best big sister ever?!!

A bunch of palm trees in desperate need of a trim!

Come daddy - lets go!

We normally bring the stroller along for these things, but the kids hardly ever sit in it. Normally only from the car to and then back to the car. The stroller is great to bring along anyway, to have the diaper bag, camera bag, hoodies, carry drinks etc etc. Great not having to carry everything all the time! It's going to be strange that day when we don't need it. Start to carry stuff again, backpacks..It's so nice to just pack everything up in the stroller.

Something the kids thought was funny was to see that there were so many wild rabbits around! They were hopping around (in the less dangerous habitats) and some had babies. Too cute!!

Horse statues

I wanted to get some pictures of me and the kids, but Benjamin didn't want to take pictures with mommy, but my girls did!

My girls & I

The pictures above and below shows how fun the kids can have together sometimes. There are so many arguments and fights about everything and nothing everyday, so it's even more enjoyable for me to see them get along so well and actually laughing and making a game up on their own. Here one of them started to shake the cord and therefore the other one would "wobble" and shake and then it went back and forth. They were giggling so hard, and many around us made comments and smiled about it. They especially got a little boys attention, looking like he was about their age, I thought that he would join in, but he kept his distance but laughed and giggled with Ben and Isabella. I'm actually standing quite a few steps back, not wanting to disturb them, but being able to zoom in pretty well. I so wanted to get more of their faces, but then they would have noticed me and the game would have been over, so I didn't want to step closer.

Walking toward the petting zoo.

At the petting zoo, Cassie found two horses that she really wanted to pet. There were a lot of people standing by the line trying to get the horses attention to step outside, but they weren't having it. Cassie really wanted to pet them, especially the white one, called Smokey and we waited and waited. After a while, some of the other people gave up and then I stretched my hand in, started to talk calmly and soft to him, calling him over, whistled softly...and soon I got his attention! He looked up, and walked straight towards me. Cassie was amazed and so happy. She got to pet him for a long while, me and Isabella too, but unfortunately, when the people around us saw that he came out, all of a sudden a lot of people had pushed forward and it got too loud and crowded for him and he turned around walking back to the other side. Cassie was upset that the other people "scared him away' but at least she got to pet him. She did feel pretty special that he came out to us! When Chris tried to take a picture of us, the crowd was already pushing and he was already turning away.

Cassie wanted to go back later, but as it mostly is, there is no later, as there were so many other things to see, but still, it was a special moment.

Cassie is standing to my left here hidden behind a women in pink, she had just petted his head here when he's turning around. Ben wasn't so interested, I guess the girls have inherited my "horse gene"...

The petting zoo, was more like it. Ben just loved the goats. Also here, it was so nice how they had made the area. We've been to many places where the goats/sheep jump around trying to get snacks and it can get very uncomfortable when they beg and jump up on you, hurting you and could hurt the little ones. I'm not too happy about those places and it's always a little scary with them and the kids gets scared and wants me to hold them and it's just not so enjoyable.

HERE, there were no snacks at all for the animals. They weren't used to get some, and weren't begging for anything. They were happily laying around and what they had here for the kids, was little rubber brushes to use for the goats. Perfect! The kids loved to groom them and the goats loved their treatments!! A win-win for everyone! This is really something that other zoos should take after.

Ben found his favorite goat!

This goat was enjoying it! Stretching her neck almost wanting the kids to groom a little bit more under her chin..Can you imagine what a wonderful life, getting massages/grooming all day long!

Below is a series of pictures that I love! My pride and joy. My beautiful children in a beautiful setting. I wish that I could have gotten some when they all turned around walking towards me, but there was no time for that. When these pictures were taken, I had to get into action and make sure that the kids walked away from the water. Chris was here really close by, I just zoomed in on the kids, but he was right there in case they would start running towards the water or the birds. The pelicans were not scared either, and it was so peaceful and lovely by the water.

After this, we walked over to the elephants. What was a little bit of a disappointment, was that it was only one elephant out. I believe that they only had two, but they didn't get along, so they had to take turns in their walking/play area. That was a bit sad, knowing that normally elephants stay together in big families. This was also not such a big area, and I hope that they had more space in the back of the area, what we didn't see.

Isabella giving her sister a big kiss - just like that.

I should have told her to hold her hand out flat, making it seem like she's holding an elephant in her hand, that would have been a cool picture! Still, love her smile here!

This was about the last on our day around the zoo, it was getting close to closing time, and we had promised the kids to have a ride on the merry-go-round that was positioned in the middle of the zoo. To make it back there in time, we had to hurry up, but the kids didn't complain, as they knew that they were going to go on the ride.

Chris stood with Ben a bit further away, as he wanted to sit on an elephant, so I didn't get a good picture of him, as I couldn't leave Isabella unattended on her horse. Cassie was a few seats in front of Isabella on her favorite animal - a dolphin!

Not the normal horse on the merry-go-round!

The very last thing we did, was to go into the sting ray basin, it was a closed off area, and we had already paid extra to go in there. We thought it would be a little different, but it was just a basin where you could touch them. There were quite a few in there, but they weren't that easy to touch. Cassie had to lean forward a lot trying to get close enough to one.

Finally - she touched one!

And here a few more times.

After the obligatory stop/exit through the gift shop, we were on our way back to the hotel. As we know that this is the way it is in these places, we avoid all the whining about wanting things as we already say that we will get them a thing each and that's it. If whining about it, or wanting more, they end up with nothing. So far, this works for us, and we of course have to help them pick something. Isabella could easily have picked the biggest stuffed tiger for a couple of thousand dollars, but if you steer them in one direction and make them choose from two or three things, we have less problems.

Isabella choose a baby lion cub that fits into a little bag, Benjamin choose a set with little Zoo animals and Cassie found a white horse to remind her of Smokey. All kids happy - parents happy!

Happy kids, a little tired, ready to go back to the hotel and have dinner and a bath!