This blog entry is for a photo contest that I’m entering at 5 Minutes for Mom.

This photo represents being a Mom to me because, although Moms have many and more serious responsibilities, one of the big things that I want to accomplish is to creatively plan ways to make childhood fun for my daughter, even when she’s too young to remember that fun when she gets older. My Mother was SO unbelievably good at making our childhood fun, and although I don’t have that natural knack that she had, I am going to try my best to teach Ali how to have fun. This picture is from last night when we had her best friend AJ spend the night. They had SO much fun together! We have made a conscious effort to help them to love to play together, and to teach them how to interact at an early age, and they definitely have it down pat!

I’ll let you know if my photo makes the finals so that you can vote for it!

We had a great time at the zoo with the Pierces today!! It was fun to go with a family that has a three year old that appreciates the zoo even more! And, the zoo finally opened the Spring exhibits!! You can now go to the Kangaroo Kountry and the Butterfly exhibit.

At the Kangaroo Kountry, one of the male zoo workers was rocking a baby kangaroo in a rocking chair – I mean a teeny tiny BABY, one way too small to leave his mother’s pouch. He was explaining to the kids that since this baby doesn’t have his mother, he IS the kangaroo-baby-momma. He was wearing the little guy in a pouch, and he said that he has to wear him all day, wake up every three hours and feed him during the night, carry a diaper bag around with him, and the worst part is that since he wears the baby in a cotton pouch all day, he has to, umm, make the baby use the bathroom after every meal to prevent getting wet on. . . or much, much worse. Apparently real kangaroo momma’s do this by licking their babies, but hopefully he’s not going to quite that much of an extreme. All of that is quite a daunting task, and I was impressed that a male zookeeper took it on. It seems like it would be easier for a woman to do it, seeing as we have that maternal instinct. He said he’s learned a lot about being a Momma – like how to bend over to get something without dropping his baby out of his pouch, how to do things while holding his baby, etc.

I think this guy has good potential to be a really good Daddy to some kids one day – pretty sure he was single. Hmmm. . . who should I set up with him?? :) If you’re looking for a good guy who apparently likes taking care of babies, why not visit Kangaroo Kountry?
Here’s some pics of the baby Kangaroo and his baby-momma:

Bonus picture! Here’s a fun picture I took of the Giraffes:
Coming soon: Tonight Ali is having her first ever spend-the-night company!! AJ is spending the night, and I am sure it will be much fun! Be sure to check in tomorrow for lots of pictures and I’m sure a story or two of our adventure.

Thankfully, Ali has napped amazingly today. She has gone down for both of her naps and fallen asleep immediately, which hasn’t happened in at least a month or two. It’s so relieving and a nice, easy change of pace!

However, lately I have had to go in her room at least once if not several times and tell her sternly and lovingly to lay down and go night night. It’s not the worst discipline a parent has to do, but I’m new at it, so it’s always nice to know that she doesn’t resent me for having to do that.

Yesterday I had one of those reassuring moments.

She was talking and playing in bed, so I headed up the stairs to tell her to lay down. If you have been to our house, you know that our stairs are unusually creaky, so she always hears me coming. I hear in her most excited voice, “MuMA!!!”. I couldn’t help but smile. She was so excited to see me, even though it was for “discipline”. It was hard to get rid of my smile before I went in there.

Bonus Picture!! This picture was too good not to post. Ali sat in her rocking chair at the window yesterday for a good 15 minutes watching Daddy mow the grass. She loved it!!! (You can see Chris to the right of her red block).

As I have mentioned before, I have a personal gardener. I didn’t request my gardener, nor do I pay my gardener – flowers just appear in my yard and flower box. It is amazing! My mom loves gardening, and I personally did not inherit her love or abilities for gardening. Or sewing, for that matter. I had to make one dress in home ec and by the time I finished it, I hated it. But, I digress. I love pretty flowers, but I hate pulling weeds. When I was little, I opted to not do any outside chores and so did all indoor chores..my favorite being cooking a lot of our family meals. I DO love cooking. At least I have one homemaker trait. Anyway, back to gardening, not only does my Mother (without being asked) plant my flowers, she goes out and weeds them when she is visiting – just on a whim! I know, I’m spoiled. Terribly spoiled. I highly recommend it (being spoiled, that is).

I have always been a very conscientiously honest person, but yesterday, I admit it – I lied. Not just that, it was a premeditated, planned out lie. Yup, and Ali is going to read this one day and know that I lied. I’m a terrible Mother.

Notice the not-quite-so-excited look on her face here:

She’s still keeping her eyes on AJ as we go around the circle.

It’s time to announce the winner of my first contest!!
The features that I had identified were:
Chris’ eyes (this is the feature that everyone notices), and my eyebrows, lips, cheeks (or smile), nose, and hair color. The closest person got 4 out of 6 features right, and it was my Mom! So Mom, you win $15 at Etsy! (no complaints that Mom had the advantage – she won fair and square!) :)

I know I’m blogging about Ali a lot lately, and although I try to mix up my blogs between baby stuff/me stuff/spiritual stuff/random stuff/etc, I haven’t been able to lately due to working 35 hours a week (between still doing my Slappey work and getting Chris’ company’s stuff set up at home). So I haven’t been doing much of anything or thinking much about anything but Ali and work lately. And although I enjoy accounting immensely, I’ve heard that not everyone else finds it as intoxicatingly fun as I do, and so, because I care about you, I try to steer away from work blogs.

Sooo, you get what I have: Ali blogs.

Yesterday, she was eating dinner, and she was very interested in something very desirable looking that was on the counter – something for her cousin Eli’s baby shower next month. She wanted it very badly. I told her “no, baby, that’s Eli’s”. Immediately, she started pointing at my eyes and saying “ice”. She heard El-eyes, and so every time she saw that fun item for the rest of the night, she would point at someone’s eyes and say “ice”. And so starts the misconception that her baby cousin is a body part.

I remember vividly some misconceptions I had in childhood – understanding things to be different than they were. This particular Ali occurance reminded me of my interpretation of the word “office” – when I first started reading, I was immensely puzzled for what seemed like a very long period of my life about why ice wasn’t allowed in so many buildings! It just made no sense to me. What was so bad about ice that you couldn’t have it? And it was such an childhood-airheaded moment, because I knew it was an office, and would probably think, why do they post “off ice” at an office? But for some reason, I had trouble putting 2 and 2 together to how office was spelled, and that you were indeed allowed to have ice at an office. Another word I remember not understanding is conscience. I had a book that talked alot about one of the main character’s strong conscience, and I thought he understood science very well.

So, I am curious – surely you all remember misinterpretations and misconceptions from your childhood. I love hearing them – please comment your favorite one for us all to enjoy!!!