North Carolina ZOO

Chris and I first went to the NC Zoo when we were about 5 months pregnant with Davis and we always had wanted to go back. So we planned to spend a weekend with Aimee in Durham and decided to take a family zoo trip. Here are some fun pics from our time there last weekend. My parents came down with us and we had a fun filled weekend. The NC Zoo has two main continents of animals - North American and Africa and it is very spread out.

Sleeping cougar

Lazy cougar- look at those claws

Alligator

Sea lions - these are one of my favorite animals to watch at the zoo. They swim and twist and turn and they make kids smile and squeal.

Davis trying to tickle their belly.

Another favorite- the Panda Bear. He was busy playing with his plastic toy.

Otter

Aunt Aimee and Davis posing with the bison.

Davis was happy to be sprayed by the little mist stations set up around the zoo.

Red river hogs

Lion eating on a bone.

The chimpanezes are so fun to watch. I also took some video of them.... there was one small monkey would was cared for by another chimp in the bunch because her mother was no longer living.

Davis riding on the monkey's back

We watched the afternoon feeding where the zookeeper threw watermelon in to their habitat and they tried to catch it. It was great they would stand and wave their hands asking for more snacks. The little monkey here is trying to get to his "aunts" snack.

The Thinker... Hondo used to be the alpha male but has retired from this position. He likes to sit by the glass and "people watch".

Playing with Grammy.

This was as close as we got to the giraffes... oh well. No slimy tongues for us today.

Elephant

Grammy and Davis

An albino alligator- they called this exhibit the Swamp Ghost

Baboons running after each other.

Snack time- it was warm and we need something to refresh us- Minute Maid lemonade slushy... Yummy. Plus we got 2 free tickets to the carousel so Davis got to ride with both Grammy and Pappy ... this was one of his favorite parts of the trip. He also like the tram that you can ride to different areas of the park.

First ride on the gazelle... we told him to pick an alligator, lion, or something cool.. but he ended up on this.

Getting strapped on.

Next was the zebra with Pappy. All smiles.

Almost ready to go .... we had a full day at the zoo.

Final pics from the Zoo

Newlin family

Stickley Family Shot (minus Stacey)

Big Boy Bike

(I initially wrote this post in June and we had hoped to share a little video of his first days on his bike but we never really got the video to load correctly. Thought I would go ahead and post this story.... sorry for the delay. )

So we did it ..... we broke down and got Davis a BIKE. He got to ride one at Dick's Sporting Goods about 1 week ago and he loved it. He would not stop talking about getting a bike, he woke up from a nap asking if he could get a bike, he was telling friends he was getting a bike, he had a one track mind. So he and Daddy went to Target and picked out a little bike that was just his size with training wheels. (I wanted to go too but Daddy was to eager to buy him a bike he couldn't wait until I got home from work on Friday.) Let's just say the first day he didn't really want to pedal and asked me to push him so he went about 10 feet in 10 minutes. I thought gosh this is not going to be easy AND then he just picked it up.... 2 days later he was pedaling quickly, steering on his own, and having a great time. Now we just need to master him learning how to brake. Right now his brake is yelling, "Daddy, daddy-we need to stop!!!" We keep trying to tell him that being able to brake is just as important as pedaling.... hummm I think it is more fun to yell for Daddy. He is so proud of himself and well frankly we are proud of him too.

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's Day!

Here are the two handsome men in my life. I had to get their pictures after church. Davis was eager to take pictures with Daddy and was all smiles. He was standing and posing for me too which does not always happen. I think he was ready to share his new smile.

We had a relaxing day- church service, yummy Greek lunch, naptime, afternoon fun with bike riding, steak dinner, and storytime with Davis. Yesterday we went to Colonial Williamsburg for a day trip to shop, eat Cheese Shop, and walk down Duke of Gloucester. Davis liked to watch the horses.

Just Davis

Sweet sweet boy!!!

Davis's big boo-boo

Many of you already know the details surrounding Davis's accident this past week. If you don't here is a recap- I received a call at work at about 4:30PM that he had taken a hard fall and hit his teeth and I should come right away. I tried to get an urgent visit with his pediatric dentist but they were no longer in the office. I headed straight to daycare and when I got to him he was sitting in a separate room with one of his teachers and one of the daycare directors. He was upset and I took him and held him to calm him. Then I said let me see your teeth- WOW they were gruesome. The word that came to mind was fangled... (and I am not sure that is a word.) Unfortunately he had tripped over one of his classmates foot and landed teeth first on a wooden chair. It appeared that he took the force of the fall on his gums and teeth as they were pushed down and back in his mouth (not out though) and his gums were bloody. We headed to the Pediatric Emergency Room because I needed someone who knew about baby teeth to help evaluate him. After being assessed by the doctor, who quickly said he will likely have to have both top teeth removed we were able to see the pediatric dentist. After many discussions regarding Davis's two top teeth we asked the dentist to try to save them. Davis was sedated and tolerated everything like a champ- from the IV, to the sedation, to just being in the ER. Unfortunately once he was sedated we could see the extent of his injury- one of the front teeth had a significant amount of the root exposed and they could not save his teeth- in a matter of seconds both front teeth were yanked out of his mouth. It all happened quickly and we feel like we were more traumatized from this than Davis. His little smile was changed to a cute toothless smile. It was going to take a little time for us to get used to this. There were now little holes at the site of his baby teeth. Of course the ED staff made comments like "He will look silly in pictures for a few years" but he will be ok. He woke up from his sedation and wanted to go home. After eating pudding, drinking juice, and stumbling around the ER halls like a little drunk boy we were ready to head home.

No tooth fairy came that night- I think the tooth fairy was tired and traumatized and didn't know how to respond. The next day we kept him home for some TLC and to make sure he didn't have any pain. He was upset at breakfast because he couldn't eat like he normally would and then when he drank it felt weird so he tried to just avoid food. He may have mentioned his "teeth hurt". After some encouragement to chew on the side teeth he successfully ate part of a banana and we did a celebratory dance. I knew he would going to be OK after this. We had a great day- he was busy talking (which sounds normal and not slurred at all) and playing hard. He did mention once to Chris that "I miss my teeth Daddy" which broke Chris's heart but honestly he has not really mentioned his teeth since then.

Friday morning came quickly and we decided he would head back to daycare since he had done so well and only needed one dose of motrin and refused other pain medications saying "I don't need them". I was a bit nervous to answer questions from his teachers or to see how Davis would respond (to his friends, teachers, me leaving, etc). BUT Davis made this experience easier... in route to daycare while I was talking to mom on the phone he said "Mommy sing to me" and then started to sing "Jesus Loves Me" and he was doing great- he knew all the words and just kept on singing. I started to sing with him but he said, "No mommy I am singing" and continued, "Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells me so, little ones to him belong, they are weak but he is strong". He was reminding me of the TRUTH that Jesus loves Davis, with or without teeth. He is our STRENGTH when we are weak. When I got him out of the car I whispered in his ear again his reminder "Jesus loves you". He skipped right into daycare. The first person we saw was the director who had driven us to the ED and he went running into see her.... She said, "Oh Davis we missed you yesterday". Without missing a beat, he ran right up to her and said "look my teeth feel ALL better" and gave her a big ole smile. He hugged her and off he headed to see which friends were there to greet him.

So whatever you are facing today- Please remember that Jesus loves YOU!

Zoo Time with Family

We were lucky enough to have family visit us this weekend. Bryan and Karen (aka Uncle B and Aunt Karen) along with Claire, of course, came down to visit. We wanted to do something fun and decided on the Richmond Metro Zoo. We spent Saturday morning watching all kinds of animals at the Zoo. Davis was very excited because this was his first trip to the zoo. One of his favorite stories is about Curious George going to the zoo and feeding the animals. As we pulled into the parking lot he asked if we would get to see the zookeeper or if there would be ostriches (both things are in the book.)
We assured him we would see lots of cool animals. Here are some pictures of the animals we saw. We will not bore you with all of the pics.

Some colorful bird

Another bird, this one was rather loud and flew right over me in the bird exhibit.

Herd of flamingos- the two in the back looking at each other were also pecking at each other aggressively.

Prairie dog- they were small and cute.

Monkey breaking a stick with his feet. Why is it so fun to watch monkeys? They had a ton of different monkeys all throughout the zoo.

Monkeys sitting down for a second and then shortly afterward they were swinging around.

Tiger- there were 2 young tigers that were almost 1 year old in this pen.

Another monkey just staring and making noises. He was making a lot of noise when we left and had a crowd around him. His sounds were shrill and sounded almost distressing.

Lounging Lemur

The Giraffes
This was one of the coolest parts of the zoo. They had a raised feeding area so that you could feed the giraffes. It helps to get there early and feed them b/c around lunchtime they were not as anxious to eat and actually would not even come to get food from us.

Their tongues are long. This giraffe was going after little food pellets which were dropped. Chris, Bryan, and Karen feed them and thought their tongues were a bit rough.

Zebras

Cheetahs on the other side of the fence from the zebras. We felt like this was not a great set up. The cheetahs just paced back and forth looking at the zebras and other animals across the fence.

Rhinoceros - Wow they are big. One was lounging in a mud bath and having a good time.

Tortoise

Peacock

Monkeys- again they are fun to watch. There were two little monkeys. You can see the one hanging onto his mother here in the middle. The little monkeys also swung around and played.

Feeding time- the penguins were enjoying some fresh fish.

Swimming penguin

We all were a little exhausted after our time at the zoo but Claire got a nap during all the fun.

Parrot - I enjoyed seeing the vivid bright colors.

The King Vulture
It was interesting b/c this bird and his friend were just standing there for a while with their wings extended and cleaning themselves.

Karen feeding the Fallow deer.

White tail deer

Alligator

Two camels. They were interesting because half of their hair was out and they looked shaggy but Chris and Bryan became experts in learning that the live in extreme temperature environments where it ranges from 20 F to 120F so they shed their coat at various times of the year.

Feeding camels

Finishing off our food with the giraffes

Snow leopard

Black bear

Tiger

Again this tiger cage was right beside of the bears and he seemed to be pacing and stalking the bear.

Davis in the safari car.. he wanted to ride with the animals.

Mommy and Davis - one last picture before we headed to lunch.