I’m curious. . . of those 20 and 30-something year old Moms out there. . . do you ever feel (like I do) conspicuous still shopping at the stores you shopped at before you were a mom? Do you feel like all of the workers are staring at you judgementally as you stroll your toddler(s) through their supposed-to-be-hip stores?
Well, I would just like you to know that I changed a diaper in the changing room at Express today. A dirty diaper. I’m sure they really appreciated that added to their “image”. But hey – isn’t that what “Changing room” means??
In other news, I think my daughter is a bit too empathic. Or I need to learn to hide my feelings better. I’ve felt a bit down today – probably a mixture of the weather, the anticlimacticness of my birthday (thanks to my rude stomach bug), and exhaustion from still not being completely recovered, yet trying to get back into the swing of things. Anyway, I went to get Ali out of bed this morning, and we were rocking and cuddling, and she sat up and said, “Mommy sad.” I said, “Mommy’s not sad, Mommy’s happy!” She laid back down, and a few minutes later, sat up again and very authoritatively said, “Mommy sad!!”. I felt bad that I was apparently letting on despite my efforts at cheerfulness, and I said “You’re right. Mommy’s sad. But I’ll be ok!!”.
And then, also testing her Psychic abilities since Daddy was at work, said “Daddy no-no sad.”
And here are the promised few more pictures from going to the Gulf Coast Zoo yesterday (which I highly recommend to anyone visiting Gulf Shores or Orange Beach – it’s a great little zoo where you get to pet and feed almost all of the animals!).
First of all, we were very obedient and didn’t open our umbrellas anywhere near the tigers.
It’s so interesting to me how babies will do anything, but toddlers get much more timid. For instance, here is a picture of Ali at 10 months old at this zoo, more than willing to and interested in feeding the animals:
But now that she’s nearly two, she is much more afraid of things, and just wants to “observe” others. So pretty much all of my zoo pictures end up being Ali observing.
Observing Mommy feed the goats:
Observing Leo feed the Donkey (although she did love to say “hee haw!!!” to the donkey):
Observing the peacock from afar:
Observing Daddy feed the little goat:
Just plain observing the little goat:
The only thing she got excited about was climbing the stairs.
She loves some original fun. Go figure.
She also loved going in and out of the birdhouse via the plastic chains:
And she begged for the Lion’s red ball.
And finally, a miraculous family picture where we’re all looking in the same direction and smiling! If only Chris and I had thought to take off our sunglasses. But oh well – it’s as good as it gets!
Sorry you are feeling a little down and still under the weather.
The pictures at the zoo are adorable. That is the zoo that was featured on an animal planet special I saw about them rebuilding after Hurricane Ivan I think, I thought it would be a nice little place to visit when I saw it on tv.
Looks like everyone had a nice time.
Yes, it is the Zoo that was on “The Little Zoo that Could”. We love visiting all of the animals that were on TV! :)
Very cute pictures even if Ali is just observing. I hope you get to feeling better.
I gotta say, I don’t remember what stores I shopped at before I was a mom. Having three children I feel more conspicuous than ever. Especially when the clerk comes over and says, “Ma’am, I’m sorry but your children must be supervised while in our store.” Ha Ha!
Also your zoo picks are great! We used to live in Gulf Shores, but never made it to the zoo there. Now we know our next visit must include the zoo.
The photos of your daughter are precious! I love how you caught all of her observations…It’s those moments that you’ll want to look back on and remember!