Princess Aleesa

A few days ago, Z0ie started dressing up in her play clothes and introducing herself as Princess Aleesa, complete with a varied voice inflection for this character and regal bowing. I was enlisted to be "the boy"...when I inquired as to why a "boy" was needed, I was told, "So I can dance with him!" (Duh, mom!)

She was even well-versed at riding her trusty steed...




Princess Aleesa has returned each day since her introduction, so I decided to invite her, Indie, and Grandma Lucy to go on a walk. The Princess obliged, decked out in her royal attire!







And, finally, in true princess fashion, she danced and spun in the yard! Ah, to be so carefree!

The Amazing Recall of a 3 Year Old

People who have known me for a while tend to comment on how well I remember certain things or that I remember some things at all because they have no recollection of a time/place/event whatsoever; I guess I have passed this onto my daughter. Prior to her move, our dear - and artistic - friend, Lind$ay gave Z0ie some paintings she had done. The gifting of these paintings happened on or about September 18, 2009 at a restaurant. There is a total of 4 paintings and Z0ie only saw them at the restaurant and then at home before (sorry, Linds) I put them in a closet for storage. So fast forward to yesterday (10/12/09 - about a full month later), and I'm getting Zoie ready in the morning...I hold up her shirt and she gets very excited, saying, "Mommy! My shirt is just like Linzee's painting she gave me!!" At first, I was like, "Huh?"...then I remembered! So I had to pull out the painting and snap a photo. Guess great art leaves a great impression!!

Fun with Friends at the Zoo

Our friend, Linds@y moved to the OMA/CB area, so we went up to see her new place and to visit the zoo on a brisk fall day!

The first stop is always the bronze lions right inside the entrance!


Z0ie loves going into the big 'bubble' (aka the Des/ert Dom/e), but she had to move this big boulder as we walked...she's so strong!


Next she took some time to see what it might feel like to have the whole world in her hand...hahaha!


Some great pics from inside "the bubble"...





Because we have a zoo membership, we've stopped trying to make it around the entire zoo, seeing everything in detail...it is so much better for us this way! We decided on this go around to check out the Big Cats, Gorillas and whatever else we meandered upon.

I love the tigers...it's hard to believe the damage they can do, but I definitely wouldn't want to mess with them! I hate when animals are in cages, but if they wouldn't make it in the wild and are well cared for, I understand the need. Hope they're able to attend the wound on the big lion's tail!






Ah...the ever entertaining primates! Z was totally into the 'bubble' windows they have..at times oblivious that there were gorillas right behind her! We also saw the baby boy gorilla who was born a few months ago...so ugly he's cute!










We saw some bears, birds and bees, too. Boy, did we ever see bees! It seemed like no matter where we were or what we were doing, there was a bee buzzin around one or all of us! It was driving us crazy!




We missed out on the $kyfari as it closed before we realized what time it was (2nd time that's happened to us!), but we did wrap up our visit with some meditative time in the "Garden of the Senses," where Z had fun on the different statuettes they have there (and where we saw MORE bees!). Z couldn't overcome the temptation to pic a couple of little flowers...I tried to relay to her that we didn't do that, but how do you sound convincing when she looks so dang cute doing it?! Agh!











We look forward to more fun visits to our wonderful zoo...it's always such a nice time there. I have to say though, that as we were there near closing on a cooler day, it WAS almost a tad eerie walking through the zoo and not seeing other humans for a little ways...I felt like the animals were just biding their time! Ha!