What a day!

Whew am I tired. Whooped. Completely whooped.

But what a great day we had.

Today included a 7:30am departure for Roy & Joan's house (Bri's parents). Bri met us there, and Joan, Bri, me and the boys headed down to Metro Zoo in Miami. The last time I went to Metro Zoo was in 1994 or 1995, shortly after Hurricane Andrew, when the zoo was desperately trying to rebuild. I went with JB. We were dating at the time. We ended up with a flat tire and no spare on the side of the highway.

Today, was different. Today, we made it to the zoo with no flat tire. Joanie took tons of pictures, and when I get them, I'll post them. We had a wonderful time, but it was very, very hot. The boys did really well considering the extent of the heat, and we had a fabulous time spending the day together. Bri even bought Isaac a few gifts in the gift shop on the way out which thrilled him!

Isaac napped on the way from the zoo back to Joan's house. When we got there, we took an hour to swim in the pool before I headed back to my parents' house. We got home around 3:00pm and headed out to a local pizza place that some friends of our's own with my parents. Dinner out was probably too much. Isaac completely melted down. He was so exhausted. I am definitely planning to spend the weekend at home laying low.

... speaking of my parents' house, we have a good little set-up going on here. My parents helped me completely box in the living room so that Elijah has a place to play without getting into anything and everything. We block the main entrance with a chair that Isaac can crawl over if he wants a little more freedom. Isaac is such a good listener. He learns his limits and then respects them. For instance, I taught him when we got here that there was one cabinet in the kitchen that he could go in with Tupperware in it. He will often wander into the kitchen and open his one cabinet. But never any others. And the others are not childproofed (except the one that has chemicals in it.) He also knows he can't go up the stairs without permission. So he waits for it. And when he gets it, he scurries up the stairs with extreme joy.

Elijah, however, has no idea what "no" means. And even if he did, I'm not sure he would plan on listening. His personality is so different from Isaac. I am not sure you could get two kids on further ends of the spectrum. So different in such neat ways! I love them both to pieces.

I have a changing table set up in the kitchen area which allows me to avoid going upstairs too often. That's the hardest part of being at my parents. The bedrooms are all upstairs. I really don't like to go upstairs and leave another kid downstairs. So I try to avoid it if I can.

We have two rooms to use at my parents. At first, I was sleeping in the big room with Elijah in a pack-n-play. Isaac was in the smaller room by himself. Elijah doesn't seem as "aware" that I am in the room so this seemed like a logical choice. But then, I decided to change that. The reason? Elijah is a noisy sleeper. He moans and snorts and cries and tosses and turns. I was sleeping so badly. So I have switched it. And I am sleeping much better. My wonderful Mom has also offered to take Elijah's monitor so that I am responsible for one baby and she the other. That has been wonderful.

This morning, Elijah got up at his normal 6:00. My mom was out for her morning walk with a friend, and I was still asleep. So my Dad got him up. About 6:20 I wandered down the stairs when I heard Elijah crying. My Dad handed him over to me. "I think he wants a bottle," he said. And then he informed me that he had been forced to clean up one of Elijah's dirty diapers. "It was a five wiper," he said, telling me how many wipes he had to use.

... Elijah's diapers. Folks, does anyone have any advice regarding this? Isaac's diapers have never and are never a problem for me. They are easy to clean. He never goes out onto his shorts. Elijah's diapers are horrible. And he usually has three of them a day. We believe it is his lack of a butt (JB calls it a "back with a crack") that causes his dirtiness to go all the way up to his shoulder blades. It is everywhere! Then, to make matters worse, he doesn't want to lay on his back while you change him. He attempts to roll over onto his stomach with every bit of his strength. It's an incredible process!

... Okay, sorry. Back to the news at hand. I wanted to end this post with some exciting news. My goddaughter, Grace W., has been acting for sometime! She was recently featured in a new Justin Bieber video. He is a new up-and-coming young pop artist. You'll easily see Grace. She is the "love interest" in the video. I am so excited for her! If you want to watch the video, click here. Also, her sister Jessie was in a Kellie Pickler video a few years ago. You can watch that video here.

All right, this post ended up being a mish mash of stuff. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some pics from Joanie. (Hint-hint Joan!)