Zoo

Why did my camera take B&W pics? Who knows!

On Friday before Christmas, I had the day off and the hubs had to work, so we headed to the zoo and got a membership. We used it yesterday also, so it's already paying off :).

What I hate about our zoo is that there aren't all that many animals but there is a LOT of pathways, meaning you walk at least a quarter mile between animals, in general. They have some noticeable animals missing, like bears (any kind of bear), lions, sea lions, penguins, etc. The "big" animals they have are zebras, elephants, and giraffes, and gibbons. They do have gibbons and lemurs but those are the only primates I can think of.

What I love about our zoo is they have a big playground really close to the entrance. And a petting zoo that's also close to the entrance. Honestly, just having those 2 things makes the membership worth it. Here are some pictures from the last 2 trips (we didn't actually see many exhibits because we went after naptime and they close at 4, so just an hour or 90 minutes per visit).

Peer Pressure and Remorse: A Life Lesson

Today was raining, and for the last few days Char has been so obsessed with her new Calico Critters doll house from her "Mimi" for Christmas that she hasn't had as much exercise as maybe she could. And she's been waking shortly after 7 am, instead of the 8 am she used to sleep nearly to. So I decided she could use a bit of exercise, and we headed for Chik-Fil-A.

I totally forgot about it being Family Night. We've never been to Family Night before, and she had a blast. There was a person in a cow costume, and a man making free balloon animals, and a face painter also though I knew she wouldn't sit still long enough for face painting. And of course there's the indoor playground which is the BIG draw.

After eating, Char played for about an hour, and then we came out and she wanted to say goodbye to the cow again. There were 2 little girls pulling on the cow's tail, and Char touched the tail, too. Just then an employee stepped in just as I stepped in and explained to her that we don't pull animals' tails because it hurts them. She said, "I'm sorry, cow! I won't do it again!" and we said goodbye and left.

On the drive home, she mentioned a couple of times that she pulled the cow's tail, and she said, "Girls pulled the cow's tail, too". So I told her that if other people do something you know is wrong, you can still say no. She said, "No, girls, you don't pull the cow's tail!" Awesome. Moving on. Or so I thought.

But then we were reading the horrible teddy bear pop-up book before bed (what IS it about that awful thing???) and she pointed to the picture of the cow and said, "The cow's sad!" "Oh, no! Why is the cow sad?" At this point, her lips moved, but I could barely even hear the sound of her lips touching and separating much less the actual air coming out. I asked her to speak louder, and she said, "I pulled the cow's tail and hurt him so he's sad."

Awwwwwww! I told her that she felt embarrassed because she did something she knew was wrong, but that it was okay, she told the cow she was sorry and it doesn't hurt anymore, and that she can always tell me anything even if she did something wrong.

I seriously wonder how much of these "life lessons" actually sink in at this age. Because sometimes she really seems to get it. Even though she did the "wrong" thing, I'm really proud of her for seeing it, apologizing, and learning from it.

Hate Letters -- but not hate mail

I'm not sure if I've mentioned before about Charlotte's complete disinterest in "symbols" (i.e. letters and numbers). She loves the alphabet song and enjoys counting, but the actual letter A or number 9 symbol, no interest at all. Aside from occasionally rearranging the magnetic letters on the fridge, she just ignores them pretty much.

So I decided to do a little experiment the other night. I was reading this horrible cheap pop-up book we inherited third-hand. For some reason she loves it. So we were counting the teddy bears on one page, and she was explaining to me that the baby sheep is called a lamb and lambs say Baaaa and the teddy bear was feeding the lamb with a bottle of milk, and over there is a purple butterfly, etc etc. She was clearly enthralled. So I said, "Charlotte, what's this letter?" ::crickets:: So I tried, "I see the letter B. Can you find the B?"

And suddenly her feet were the most interesting thing in the universe.

Some sad news

Jessie the Dog has cancer. She's 8 years old and so full of life that it's so hard to even think about something like this. I know 8 is pretty old for a Great Dane, but she acts like a puppy. In fact yesterday, when she was crated with a gigantic elizabethan collar on, she escaped from her crate. Which had been double-locked with clips!

Unfortunately that escape led to tonight's escapade. The wound looked okay last night, but it must have torn slightly or something because today the wound has split open, completely open. Poor thing! So I contemplated supergluing her the way I did when she broke apart after her spay surgery over 7 years ago, but my husband took her to the emergency vet instead ;).

The news from the vet is mixed. The good news is that it's a non-aggressive cancer that's of a type that doesn't usually spread or metasticize. It's possible it won't grow back for several months or even a couple of years. There is hope that it won't grow back until the normal lifespan of the dog has passed. The bad news is the surgery to remove the tumor was conservative (considering the location of the tumor primarily) and the surgeon almost certainly didn't get it all.

Treatment possibilities are limited. Chemo and radiation are overkill considering the non-aggressive nature of the tumor. More aggressive surgery would be painful and complicated. Amputation is possible but not advisable with a senior giant breed dog. So it's basically "wait and see". Wait and see how long it takes to grow back. If it grows too soon, we'll need to decide on the more aggressive surgery or treatments. If it grows back slowly then maybe we won't need to do anything. For now, she's very happy, content and not in pain, so that's good.

The most wonderful time of the year

A lot of my last few weekends have been spent trying to photograph Charlotte, to get something cute for Christmas cards. We got AWESOME Christmas shots last year at JC Penney portrait studio, but since we just had some studio type shots from the daycare (and paid over $100 for them), I didn't want to do it again.

I saw the "twinkle lights" photographs all over the internet and thought I'd try my hand. I got a pretty good bokeh by stringing white lights with white cords on the wall of the living room (the walls are kind of a light warm beige). But to do this, we had to move all the furniture around because the only wall big enough has a sofa on it. Anyway, these are the (better) results.

Still, I wasn't thrilled by the harsh overhead lighting. Our living room is a cave, so I aimed 2 lamps toward the middle on the floor, but I still had to use the overhead light. Which produced the harsh shadows.

So, we decided to go to Opryland Hotel and walk around. MISTAKE! It was actually Thanksgiving evening and a bazillion people were there. Charlotte was completely overstimulated very quickly, and would.not.pose.for.a.picture.to.save.my.life! We didn't actually even get to go to the main gallery with all the Christmas trees; we just left to save our Thanksgiving lol. This picture is kind of cute; not cheery per se, but still style-y, in a way.

So, on to Plan C. Blowing fake snow. These pictures came out pretty well considering they were outside the house with too many phone poles and cars and things in the background.

I think my problem is that, as I get a little better at photography, not great but not bad anymore in general, my expectations are going up, and I get disappointed when I get decent but not great results. I really hope to take some classes soon.

Anyway, we mostly went with the snow blowing for the Christmas cards, with the silly hat bokeh one and some vacation pics (I got a tri-fold card with lots of spots for pictures). I'm reasonably happy with them.

Also, please note that the snow blowing pics showcase Char's lovely black eye. :( Poor kiddo! We went to Knoxville to visit my mother-in-law for her birthday on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It was just a day trip. Poor Charlie fell from a stool onto a tile floor and landed on her face. Her poor eye turned black instantly, and she got a big blood blister swell up on her eyelid. We decided to go to the ER since it was on her eye, and it was so swollen. It drained on the way there and wasn't too bad looking anymore, and by the end of the 3 hour emergency room visit, I felt pretty stupid for going. But it all checked out and she's fine, just still has some blackness on her lid.

And speaking of Charlotte, she is SO looking forward to Christmas, Santa Claus, Baby Jesus, etc. We put our Christmas tree up on Sunday, and the first words out of her mouth on Monday morning were, "Is it Christmas?"

(And I'll let you in on a little secret. I'm pretty excited, too!)