The Two Tarantulas

Every third Saturday of the month the Virgina Living Museum has story hour that is free to the public. Each Saturday the volunteer (an older lady named Teddy) reads a short story and brings in a coordinating animal for the children to see. Today she read about spiders and brought in two types of tarantulas.

The first tarantula she brought around was a regular tarantula. She showed us it's fangs and was even able to pull out some of it's silk. The second spider she showed the children was called the Goliath tarantula and the name was very fitting as it was HUGE. Teddy said that it is the largest spider in the world. I do believe that if I came across one I might just pee my pants. You cannot tell in the pictures but it was quite large. Anyway, it was lots of fun. Adelyn enjoyed watching all the kiddos jump in excitement to see the tarantulas. We are looking forward to next month when we will hear about and get to meet a turtle!!

The Petting Zoo

There is a small petting zoo near our house that Adelyn and I went to over the summer with my sister and nephew. It is a little cheesy but fun nonetheless. Spencer was post-call the other day so we had the afternoon together as a family. We decided it was the perfect day to go visit the animals. Let me add, that the last time Adelyn fell asleep so we were hoping that this time she might be a little more interested. The petting zoo has quite a variety of animals. There is a tiger (obviously not an animal to pet), river otters, monkeys, a llama, goats, deer and more. And yes, Adelyn was much more interested this time.

As most of you know she is quite the intense little girl so she enjoyed studying the animals and watching them walk around. We were the only ones at the small zoo that day so we had the animals all to our self. It was funny to watch them as we walked through the barn. Most of them just laid there and slept, I guess they found us to be pretty boring. Although the llama did come walking up to Adelyn and I just in time to get into the snapshot that Spencer took of us.

The petting zoo is owned by the SPCA so it just so happens that in order to get to see the animals you must first walk through and look at all the rescue dogs and puppies. Oh how my heart aches for those doggies. All those puppy eyes looking at you makes me so sad. We went around and talked to all the dogs in their kennels as they begged for us to take them home. We wished that we could but we decided we probably have enough going on and don't need a canine friend right now.

My Own Agenda

Time, it is something that we all feel like we don't have much of. I wake up with an agenda, a new plan for the day ready to start and conquer. We all know that Spencer is the "King of Planning". A personality trait that could sometimes drive me crazy when we first got married, but I have now come to love. You see, I used to pride myself on being this laid back, procrastinating, go with the flow kind of girl. But honestly there has always been a part of me that liked order. I now like to call myself a "laid back planner" (is that an oxymoron?) Becoming a mom makes you more organized, doesn't it? Or maybe I have become more scatter brained and need to make out to do lists or I will forget what I was thinking of 5 minutes ago. Of course every day is different but I do like going in with a plan and a somewhat (let me STRESS somewhat) predictable routine. Anyway, this plan and agenda can sometimes become a problem. It is hard for me to get off track. For example, it is easy for me to bake my neighbors brownies and drop them off. But if they invite me to sit and visit on the porch while Adelyn naps it is hard for me to stay. Tick, tock, tick the clock is chasing me. There is so much I want to get done while she is down for an afternoon nap. My agenda is calling me. Clothes to wash, dinner to prepare, oh yeah and have I showered today? Now I know this is not always a bad thing but it can get in the way of building relationships and taking time for people, including my family. Someone once told me that people are more important than projects. So next time I'm caught up in my own agenda I want to try to set the project aside and really listen to what others are saying.

Greetings

Greetings from Newport News! Little signs of the fall season are starting to appear outside our window. How time flies. Time is such a funny thing, isn't it? There are days I feel will never end and others that just zoom by. But when I think back of our time here, I wonder where did the summer go? Nonetheless, we are enjoying the cooler days and crisp fall evenings.

Adelyn and I went to our first play group the other day. All the children were one year and older so they were walking and crawling all over the place, Adelyn just stared in amazement. It is hard to imagine that she will be doing those same things in just a few months. The group met at my neighbors home so it was very convenient to be able to walk across the street when Adelyn got up from her nap. Speaking of naps, I think I need one :) Sleep has been a battle the past couple of weeks with Adelyn. We have started her on food and she has been a bit constipated. For the past few months she has been falling asleep so well, so it is hard trying to figure out what is causing her such total hysteria in the crib. It really is a battle in my head. Do I go hold her? Rock her? Let her cry? How long do I let her cry? Feed her again? I have heard from many moms to try and read your babies cries. Little Miss Drama goes from zero to one hundred. It is either happy or hysterical. So we are still trying to figure out how to read her. Although I will say that she slept much better last night, once she finally fell asleep. We all woke up feeling much more refreshed this morning!!! A fresh start to a new day, thank you, and I'll have another!!