The Zoo, a jumping castle and baby powder, oh my!

So, usually I feel like I have nothing to post, but today I feel like I could do 5 posts pretty easily. I'll try and be brief, but if you've read any of our other posts you'll know brevity is not our strong suit.

Monday and Tuesday were exceptionally warm days for April in Denver (high 70's to low 80's), so we like the rest of the city took advantage and had two glorious days outside. On Monday we went to the Zoo with 3 other families from our care group. We had a good time with 4 moms and 12 kids. We ran into 6 other moms from our church and their 15 kids, but decided that we would be too large of a group if we all tried to stay together. It seemed as if EVERYONE in Denver was at the Zoo on Monday. We had a good time and only mommy ended up with a sunburn. I didn't realize my white skin was so susceptible to the sun after months of sitting inside : )

Here is a picture of Josh and Rebekah at the Zoo, don't they look like they are having fun?

On Tuesday we opened a Christmas present that has been sitting in the garage just waiting for a warm and sunny day. Joel's grandparents purchased a Jumping castle for the kids for Christmas and we have been telling the kids they had to wait for the snow to melt off the yard and the temperature to be warm enough to set it up. Well, all the pieces aligned yesterday and the kids got to play in their jumping castle. They had a blast and it was fairly easy to set up and take down, but Joel and I have decided that they will probably enjoy it more (and so will our electric bill) if we just set it up only once every few weeks.


Only a few knocked heads and just a little blood. It has a slide and fits nicely in the backyard. I'm sure we'll have plenty of friends over to try it out this summer. Josiah, after playing for about 15 minutes said, "Hey mom, we won't need to go to Pump It Up for our birthday's anymore, we can just use this!" He was very excited.

And finally the baby powder story! Every afternoon the kids have a "quiet time" where for an hour or so they sit in their room, our room, the guest room (wherever is available) and read quietly to give them a break from each other and mommy! Naomi had her quiet time on her bed yesterday, as always, and everything seemed to be going fine. She was fairly content to stay in her room, which isn't normal, but I thought after 3 months of this habit, maybe she was finally getting it.

When it was time to get up, she came downstairs and had a little baby powder on her face and hands, and then my stomach dropped and I knew I did not want to go in her room. It's a phenomenon neither Joel nor I can explain, but Naomi is obsessed with powder substances. Over the last year or so I have discovered 3 overturned formula cans, and 4 or 5 emptied boxes of laundry detergent and 2 empty chocolate milk powder containers. Of course this also means she loves digging in the dirt outside and can play with a pail and shovel at the base of the swing-set for hours. It's always frustrating and is usually followed by a lengthy discipline session where we explain that her playing with these powders costs mommy and daddy money and it is not okay.

Her discovery of baby powder yesterday was no different. I entered her room and it seemed as if it was covered in 1/2 inch of baby powder. Not every square inch was covered, but a good 40% of her room looked like a winter wonderland. I'm not sure how much experience most of you have with baby powder, but it is not the easiest thing in the world to clean up. We vacuumed some of it, wiped up some with wet washcloths and a lot of clothing/blankets got a run through the washing machine. When all was said and done I looked at Joel and said, "this is an experience someone without kids cannot even fathom. How can such a sweet and innocent 3 year old make such an enormous mess in less than 30 minutes?" Oh the joys of parenting!!

Last, but not least, a little note about my appointment yesterday. Everything was fine. I was a bit nervous because I feel like the babies movements aren't very regular yet, but the midwife reassured me that I'm only 18 weeks and this is normal. Even though I've done this 5 other times there are never any guarantees and it's easy to get worried. The babies heartbeat was 146 beats a minute, and my next appointment/ultrasound is scheduled for May 20th.