Well, you guessed it by the photos, we have become regular zoo nuts! Steve went with the kids on Monday for our second zoo outing of the year (hooray for annual passes!) and they got to see the tigers being fed. Too cool. Steve tried to tone down the fun of the experience so that I wouldn't be pained because I was stuck in a cubicle while they were out having a fabulous time, but it didn't work and he eventually fessed up to the fact that they had a ball.
I asked Sam what his favorite animal from the zoo was when they got home. First, he told me that his favorite was the camel because it went "bump, bump, bump" (yes, this is what the camel says in my son's mind), but then he changed his mind and told me that he like the horses the best. I said, "do you mean the zebras?" and he said, "no, the horsies, Mommy." Still not believing him, I asked, "were the horses black and white?" and he clarified, "no, Mommy, the piggyback horses." This was obviously supposed to clear up any and all confusion on my part, but it didn't work, so I asked Steve what the piggyback horses were. It turns out that they just put in some new horses in the zoo playground that you can ride on, hence the piggyback part. Honestly, the kid goes to the zoo and sees all sorts of cool animals and gets to watch the tigers being fed and his favorite part is the playground.
Sam has come up with a few other hilarious statements over the past few weeks. Once while I was blow drying my hair, he asked me, "Mommy, are you vacuuming your hair?" The other morning and I was getting ready for work, he came up and asked, "Mommy, are you happy?" (this is one of his most popular questions). I answered, "Yes, Sam, I'm happy because I have a wonderful son like you" (yeah, I really said that. We try to be affirming in the Morningstar house). To this Sam replied, "Mommy, you are so, so smart." Kids do say the darndest things.
Ben has really found his voice lately. One of the church nursery workers came up to me after service last week and said that they thought he was horribly upset until they realized that he was just shrieking to hear himself, and she was right. It wouldn't sound so alarming if he didn't yell so loudly and so high, but fortunately he has toned it down a little and spends more time playing with his tongue and making more word-like noises now.
Ben's other new hobby after making noises so high that only dogs can truly hear them is feeding things to the dog. He and Nesbitt both enjoy this new pastime as he giggles in delight while she savors a Cheerio or Goldfish cracker. Nesbitt has gotten pretty good about only eating the things that are offered to her, but we do have the occasional teary eye as she finishes off a bowl of something that wasn't meant for her yet.
We've had a couple of big Sundays in church for the Morningstar family, musically speaking. Last Sunday I made my official public banjo debut, so that was pretty exciting. I played a little banjo accompaniment on Blessed Assurance, and it really went well, if I do say so myself. Maybe some day we'll do a whole bluegrass service! Maybe not.
This week our worship pastor was out of town so Greg Kyte and I led the music for both services. It was really fun, but sure reminded me how fortunate we are to have a full time worship pastor! For all of you St. Mary's folks out there, we successfully introduced Siya Hamba - there's nothing like a bunch of Utahans singing a Zulu song!!! The really exciting part of the service is that Steve and I invited several neighbors and friends from work and we had 3 groups of them come. I'm sure you can imagine how psyched we were (are) about that.
I realized that I forgot to include the boys' stats from their doctor's appointment a few weeks ago. At Ben's 9 month appointment, he was 29" tall and weighed 20 pounds on the nose. That puts him in the 25th percentile in weight and 80th in height, which comes in stark contrast to Sam who's still in the 10th percentile for height!!! We figure that he's just a late bloomer in the height department, because he's certainly healthy and happy, so hopefully his 35" will become considerably more soon. Sam now weighs 31 pounds, which is right in the norm for his age. The important part is that both boys are doing well, and we're really grateful to have two healthy kids.
The last note of interest is that I just found out that I get to go to Seattle for a week in May and then Portland for the week after for some training on the Oracle database system. I'm so psyched, both to learn some new skills and to spend 2 weeks in a part of the country that I've never really visited! The best part is that Steve and the boys are coming, too. They'll tool around the cities during the day while I'm in training and then we can hang out in the evenings and on the weekends together. We are all very excited.
Hope that you're enjoying a beautiful spring!
Love,
Steve, Jamie, Sam, and Ben