Because Otherwise It Didn't Happen

These pictures are from last weekend, but I have to memorialize it before another weekend comes and goes again. As I mentioned, we headed to San Antonio on Sunday to visit my grandparents and the zoo.

First a stop for brunch at the nicest retirement community I've ever seen. It's like living on a cruise ship- a tightly run, retired military cruise ship:

Claire was full of smiles for everyone and she delighted the whole formal dining room. Every time we walked by a table she'd give a big smile to whoever made eye contact- I think they wanted to rent her out for parties by the end of our brunch. (And they can seriously party. My grandpa was describing their Octoberfest party earlier in the week and the organizers had to make three beer runs before calling it quits - those old officers are crazy!).

Claire was decked out in her flamingo dress as an homage to Landon's favorite zoo animal- the "mango." I know we should correct him, and we do, but I'm going to be so sad when he stops saying any words incorrectly. We've already lost "hepatopter" to "helicopter" and I feel like my world is just a little less bright because of it. Mango is one of the few Landonisms I have left.

The biscuit was changed into her back-up giraffe outfit after she drooled through the mango dress. Landon was quick to point out that giraffes are his SECOND favorite. Thank goodness- after all, your babyclaires should always be dressed according to your favorite long-limbed zoo animals.

We had a bit of a crisis at the giraffe habitat. Landon had been so excited to see it (especially after Claire got her new outfit on; Landon was very concerned during most of the trip that Claire be able to see all the animals from her stroller), but when we finally got there, a sign informed us that their only giraffe had died of old age a few weeks before. Now Landon knows that things can die, like the mosquito we swat or the odd dead beetle we find by the sidewalk, but it's always been trauma-related, not age. It was hard to explain- the giraffe just got old, without any sickness or injury involved (she was 33, which made her the third oldest ever in a zoo or wildlife center). So we didn't try too hard, but just told him what the sign said, and answered his various questions as we continued on with our zoo tour. He didn't make the jump to asking if anything else dies when it gets old (like people), but he was very curious about all the pictures of giraffes on posters and zoo memorabilia. Every time we passed a sign with a giraffe on it, he'd say, "mommy, why is that giraffe not dead yet?" I think a trip to the Houston zoo is in our future to prove that not all giraffes are dead, just that particular one. It's not like there's a bunch of giraffes around to disprove his current theory.

But it was a good day- disappearing giraffe notwithstanding, and I'm sure we'll be back again soon. This weekend should also be good. We have the kids' daycare festival tonight (where my beautiful basket will be auctioned off; being Room Parent requires skills I don't really have, but I tried to fake it as best I could) and then my parents are coming up to help my sister move from our guest bedroom to her new apartment. I got to work at 7 a.m. because I woke up at 6 thinking of everything I needed to do and couldn't go back to sleep. But a burst of inspiration at 8:30 had me finishing my memo by noon, so it wasn't nearly as bad a day as I feared. I think one of the hardest things about returning to work has been building up my endurance for focusing for long periods of time on only one thing. I didn't realize it was a skill that needed to be maintained until I lost it, but I'm getting better!