lions and tigers and bears, oh my! oh, and pigs too

monday, may 3
belly and i read books almost every night - usually some rotation of goodnight moon, my world, yo gabba gabba books, sandra boynton books and olivia. then i read about We Give Books, a charitable organization set up by Penguin Group and the Pearson Foundation that encourages childhood reading by offering electronic books to read on the computer. every time you read a book, they will donate a book to a cause of your choice, like books across america and volunteer usa. best part is, it's totally free. so a few nights last week, and tonight, belly and i read llama llama red pajama, a couple spot books and a max & ruby book. and we ended up donating a few books to books for asia. love it.


sunday, may 2
after a very tiring day yesterday, e and i were looking forward to a lazy sunday at home before running to the grocery store and a birthday dinner for lola. belly, bulilit and i picked up some dunkin donuts for breakfast then we sat around and played inside for a few hours. i got to take a 20 minute nap while belly and bulilit were sleeping -- felt so good! after the grocery store, we went out to mark's duck house to enjoy a very yummy chinese dinner for e's mom.

saturday, may 1
bear's mommy and i had been planning for-e-ver to take the kids to the zoo. we figured they are finally at an age where they would appreciate it, and bulilit could just come along for the ride. ;-) so with the promise of a warm and sunny day, we packed up extra clothes, cameras and snacks and headed downtown. we braved the metro with our fancy BOB revolution duallie (double stroller) and a beco - belly and bulilit's first time on the 'choo choo train' - and then walked from cleveland park to the national zoo. (we'll just pretend that we didn't start walking in the wrong direction because i thought i knew where i was going and e finally stopped some random person to ask which way the zoo was. oops.)

anyway, almost 2 hours after we left our house, we were finally at the zoo. we slathered on the sunscreen (because, gosh darn it, my kids are ALREADY darker than i am) and ate a quick lunch before making our way to the zebra. there wasn't much action in the front of the park so we went by the panda and got to see her (him?) inside, where she (he?) was eating. i told e, see, it's too hot for even the ANIMALS to be outside. belly told me that she saw the panda dancing (e said it was shaking its shoulders).

from there, we went in search of "raffes" and elephants. we found 3 elephants but apparently there are no giraffes at the national zoo. what?? we did see a beautiful toucan, an owl and a whole flock of flamingos in the bird house, before we headed to the ape house. bulilit had fallen asleep in the beco, and as soon as we walked in the ape house, the smell was overwhelming. so i took bulilit outside to buy lemonades for the group, while belly and bear looked at the gorillas, monkeys and whatever else was inside the house. (e told me later there was a baby monkey? that was clinging to its mommy while she swung around. kinda sad i missed that, but totally not worth walking around the musty ape house. i know, i'm a wimp.) there were some outdoor monkeys that we watched for a bit too - orangutans i think - and i heard that bear and belly were like, 'spider monkey!' (to which my fellow twi-mom, aka bear's mommy and i laughed out loud.)

after monkeys, we went to see the lions and tigers. the tiger was passed out in the shade but the lions were a lot more active. we ended up spending the most time watching the lions, whom we called mustafa and nala. because seriously, there was a male lion just laying there, watching all the people with no interest, and the female lioness, who kept growling at the zookeeper's door. she definitely seemed more aggressive than the male! after watching the lions for a while, both bear and belly were 'rawr' -ing, imitating the lions. it was absolutely adorable.

definitely a fun trip, despite the amount of time it took to get there and get home, and the 90 degree heat. we'll have to go again when the weather's not as sweltering, but we're driving next time.

friday, april 30
bulilit made a rare appearance at her sister's ballet class today. after class, all 3 of us joined my aunt, ballerina and her sister for brunch at ihop. when the hostess asked how many i said, "Six. Four high chairs and 2 regular chairs please." a little scary when you're totally outnumbered by little people under 3. the girls all did well, relatively speaking, and i certainly enjoyed getting out for a bit.