Penguins at the Zoo

Penguins are at the zoo!!
  

We got there for feeding time in the outdoor exhibit for warmer-weather penguins...
 

and then for cold-weather penguins.
 

 

 

My favorite part is watching them swim underwater.  We ate our snacks while watching them race each other.

For the first time ever, Hannah wanted her picture by the polar bear.

It was a warmish day for November, but still pretty cold on the Sky Safari.  We spent most of the time in Discovery Barn.

 

City Hall

Wikipedia says KC City Hall is the 4th tallest city hall in the WORLD.  I'm not sure I believe that.  Still, it is impressive.  And you can go to the 30th floor observation deck for free.  We met Steve for lunch in the River Market and then went downtown.  It was the girls' first time in a skyscraper.  Hannah said, "I've been down in a cave and now I'll be up on top of a building!"  Although, she was a little less impressed when she was actually at the top.  She thought things should look even smaller. 

I wanted to go when the leaves were pretty, but because of weather/Steve's work schedule we didn't do it until brown November. :(  Maybe we'll hit it at the right time next fall.

 

 

  

 

Marissa's Library Storytime

We drove up to Parkville to surprise Aunt Marissa at work at the library.  And her library surprised us by having the Best. Storytime. Ever.  It started with bubbles, then 3 or 4 books, and ended with parachute play.  The theme was owls, which was perfect for the girls.  The librarian even got out an owl puppet and let all the kids interact with it.  Then everyone got to make their own owl puppet.  Yes, they have a CRAFT each week.  We will definitely be back!

 

Olive refused to take any advice on the placement of eyes or beak.
 

 

Ballet Rehearsal

Olive cracks me up.

The ballet opens up their rehearsals as part of First Fridays every month.  It wasn't a dress rehearsal, so we were a little disappointed.  But we still got to take a picture with a ballerina in costume before the show.  She is actually the older sister of one of my former students.  Small world.  The night has inspired a lot of bun hairstyles in our house.

Leaves

  

 

Olive LOVED burying herself in leaves.  She even wanted her face covered.

Yes, I was taking pictures instead of working.
 

Oh, and I did this.

Leaf Prints

 

The girls are really into fall crafts.  We attempted leaf prints.  Mostly we just painted leaves.

Leaf Man

We checked out an autumn learning kit from the library and Leaf Man was one of the books.  The pictures were animal and people shapes made out of leaves.  We had a great time collecting the leaves at the park and then making our own shapes.

 

 

 

 

 

Stay-at-home Life

I realized I haven't given an update on my stay-at-home mom life.  It's been almost 6 months of not working, which is longer than either of my maternity leaves.  So it is officially the longest time I've ever had not working.  And it feels....like a vacation from life.

When I was a teacher I was constantly looking at the clock.  Did I have enough time to fit in one more book before lunch?  How many more minutes did we have at recess?  Even being a minute late to pick my kids up from PE was holding up the next PE class that was waiting in the hall.  I felt like I racing the clock every morning to get the kids ready and out the door by 7:15.  And most nights I was also trying to see how many activities I could fit into a few hours before bedtime.  We could stop at the park on the way home...but only for 45 minutes.  What dinner could be fixed in less than 20 minutes?  Each week seemed to go by in a blur because there was never enough time to do all the school stuff, housework, and fun stuff that I wanted to do.

But now I don't even wear a watch.  The girls get up around 7:00 because they hear Steve leave for work.  They come in and cuddle in bed with me until we get hungry for breakfast.  Before, we only got to have leisurely mornings on the weekends...and now it is Every. Day.  It still blows my mind.  We can go to the park and spend the whole morning.  We can spend forever just watching turtles in the pond because we have no where else to be.  We spend the whole weekend having fun and come back late on Sunday because they don't have anywhere to be on Monday morning.  It is a completely different life.

There are no "have-to-do's" in this life.  I look for activities for us to do and I fill our calendar with library story times, puppet shows, trips to the zoo, play dates, and other outings.  But they are all "want-to-do."  If someone is cranky or it is cold and rainy and we'd rather stay home, we don't have to go to library story time.  I never had that option with my old job!

One time when Steve was out of town, Olive got sick and started throwing up about every 20 minutes...from 2:00-4:00am.  So there I was trying to calm her, clean up the mess(es), and also type up sub plans for the next day.  Every time the kids got sick it was an ordeal trying to figure out who could take off of work.  Now?  Who cares!  I could stay up all night and just watch movies and nap with the girls the next day.  But of course now that they are no longer in daycare, no one gets sick!  Last fall, I spent many evenings in the doctor's office with Olive doing breathing treatments for her asthma.  And now she has been symptom free since the spring!

This feels like vacation to me, but I'm not exactly lying on a beach soaking up the sun.  I mean, I'm still taking care of two kids ages 2 and 4.  There is screaming, tears, and cleaning up of bodily functions (I am so ready for potty training to be over!)  I lose my patience and get annoyed.  But overall?  Much easier than my former life.  Then I was dealing with 20 kids...plus the 2 at home! Two is always easier than twenty-two, right?  I was trying to be an awesome teacher AND spend enough time with my kids AND somehow keep up with the dishes and laundry.  Take out the job, and it seems very manageable.  I'm no longer tackling 7 loads of laundry on a Saturday because I could never get to it during the week. I'm actually learning to cook because I finally have time to make something.  And I have time to read now!  Before I only read when I was on vacation.

I don't mean to diminish stay-at-home moms and say they have it easy.  In fact, when I stayed home with Hannah on maternity leave I was more stressed and exhausted than I have ever been in my life.  I was very ready to go back to work.  At that time I considered teaching 20 kids much easier than dealing with 1 infant at home!  I think it depends on the number of kids you have, their ages and temperaments, your job, plus all the emotional factors involved in the stay-at-home/working mom decision.  Everyone feels differently and has a different situation.  And even the same person (me) feels differently about it over time.  While it was easier for me to be a working mom a few years ago, I now feel a lot less stressed being a stay-at-home mom.

I have visited my old school a couple of times.  They said I look relaxed and happy.  And I am.  It doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would to see "my" classroom no longer mine.  School still feels like home to me.  I walk in and everyone knows me.  I still get hugs from my old kids.  I still automatically look in my mailbox in the office, even though it is no longer my mail.

I'm sure I will go back to teaching in a few years.  I will miss it.  My first year of teaching, I was so happy.  I couldn't believe my good fortune to have such an amazing job.  I loved my students, my co-workers, and my principal.  I couldn't believe they were PAYING me to teach kids and play at recess,  when I would do that for FREE!  That's pretty much how I feel about staying at home with my own kids now...because I am doing it for free. :)

Omaha Zoo

We wanted to fit in a trip to Omaha before it got really cold.  The last time we were there, Olive was just a few months old.  She loves animals (except dogs), so we knew she would have a great time.  We went on a Saturday in November, up and back in one day.  The girls are great travelers and entertained themselves on the 3 hours.  On the way back, they slept.  It was a sunny day, but a little chilly...which was great because it wasn't so crowded.  It was much nicer than going in the summer when I remember being claustrophobic in the aquarium.

Favorites:

me- Desert Dome (not because of the animals, but becuase the building is so cool), Kingdom of the Night (underneath the desert- it's the world's largest nocturnal exhibit), gorillas

Steve- spider crabs, rainforest, gorillas

Hannah- Kingdom of the Night, aquarium, butterflies

Olive- rainforest bridge, giraffes, zebras

Two years ago I remember breastfeeding Olive right next to this sculpture.  Ah, memories!
 

 

 

The zoo had a lot of these bubbles where you could really feel like you were in the exhibit with the animals.  Love it!
 

I think these spider crabs were the scariest thing at the zoo.  They were HUGE.
 

 

And the jellyfish were the prettiest.
 

 

 

Heading to the desert dome
 

 

 

It was hard to pull Olive away from her work digging up dinosaurs.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Olive is getting so brave!  She did this wiggly rope bridge about 5 times.

Flashback to over 2 years ago...

 

And now...

We picked up dinner and ate it in here in Kenefick Park.

Goodbye zoo!