Oliver goes to the zoo & other adventures...

Last Sunday the Family went to the Topeka Zoo. It was our first visit ever. We went early to avoid the blistering heat. It was still hot, but bearable. Hey, speaking of bears, we saw some! :)
Oliver was finally able to see in person all of the wonderful animals he has only seen in book after book after book. He thought it was pretty neat. Except, the Topeka Zoo doesn't really have any monkeys, and well, monkeys are Oliver's favorite. I didn't really know that until there were none to be found, but now I do! So, we made multiple trips to look at lemurs and orangutans as substitutes. Oliver even got to feed a giraffe. Way cool! See video below.

In other news, I decided to take last Saturday and make it Hard Core Potty Training Day 1. I'm not sure what I was thinking, since the very next day we wento the zoo and therefore thwarted any progress that may have been made on day 1. But, this is my first kid and well, I'm not known for extremely well-thought-out plans. Half-cocked hair-brained schemes, yes. Amazing execution, not so much.
Anyways, we introduced training pants on Saturday and are now in full-on bribe mode for making potties. I'll keep you posted. Daycare has yet to pick up the torch and run with it. I still have to buy another round of training pants so that I am not spending every single day doing laundry - only every other day!

In other events, we celebrated the 4th of July with friends and a pool, and it turns out that Oliver is not the least bit fazed by fireworks. Like, the kid sleeps right through what I take to be probably a good comparison of what it sounds like to be in a war zone. We live by a field. Enough said.

Oliver really likes to play hide-and-seek these days, which coincides well with his early attempts at counting to the number 10! So, along with the giraffe video, here is a cute video of Olivery counting to 10 before finding where Daddy is hiding. Oh, and yes, as you can see in the vid, my house is not clean these days. I mean, really, what's the point?

Lastly, in parting, I am always thinking of creative outlets that are within the scope of my modest crafting abilities. Mind you, there are very few finished projects (see above about me and execution), but still, always looking...anyways, saw this funny the other day and thought I'd pass it on. I have a jar of wine corks sitting on the windowsill in the kitchen, just waiting for inspiration to find them. True story.

Any ideas? :)