Riley and Avery

Wow! Four posts today!

We went to the zoo today (obviously) and I have to admit that it was a bit chilly up on Cheyenne Mountain!! This was the first time that Avery independently fed the giraffes by herself. She's been scared every time until now. She was also being very frugal with her precious giraffe crackers, breaking each one up into 10+ pieces.





This one is funny. That giraffe had just licked a huge chunk of Riley's hair. She then turned around to see what it was when I took the picture. Then she turned back around and saw the giraffe right there in her face with its tongue out and SCREAMED and laughed. It was funny. Kind of like the infamous "James and the Cow" episode.




Avery's patented stink eye. I don't even remember what she was POed about. I think Daddy had put her jacket on "wrong" or something like that.





I didn't even mean to dress the girls alike today. I knew they were wearing the same pants (they are their only lined jeans, so that's what we had) but then I realize that they have the same shoes on (seemed sensible at the time so they wouldn't fight over who got the coolest shoes, etc.) and the jackets, well they were on sale. At least they're different colors!


Avery says "statue" really funny. She says "ta-CHOO". It took a little bit to figure out what she was saying, and Rudi was more baffled than usual on that one.

Oh, and after looking at the Spectacled Bear, Avery said "I know what bears eat! They eat peoples!" I told her that bears eat a lot of berries and fish, etc. Riley said they eat honey. So Avery said "Well, apparently peoples smell like berries and honey." Yes, she said "apparently" and obviously didn't believe that bears don't normally eat people. (But she does know that bears will eat people. Hey, we live in bear country and can't really afford to sugar-coat such details!)



All in all we had a very nice day. Yes, it was windy and cool up there, but the family time was much-needed. We were at the zoo for five hours, I believe. We had a coupon for 50% off of admission, and we got an additional $2 off each person with our military ID. So not too shabby at all. We brought our own food and drinks and kept it fairly cheap. But still fun!

And some animals for your viewing pleasure:

Mostly pictures. Girls were just dancing again the the Baltimore Consort Renaissance music again.

We went, again, to the preschool class at the Garden of the Gods. This week's topic was dinosaurs. The girls really had a blast. Avery in particular was very into it, making sure her dinosaur was "just so." On to the next post...

I know, a while ago. I've fallen behind on blogging, so I'm trying to catch up!






Chinese New Year was a lot of fun (and cheap) but Riley was disappointed that she didn't learn Chinese while there. I tell you, Riley is all about learning languages. I really really really loved the taiko drums. Rudi thought I was nuts. The food was good, catered by the restaurant we always order from, so we knew it was safe for Avery.

I don't really remember all that much about it, so I'll just move onto the next post...

So, I went to school last night and Rudi took the girls out to Barnes & Noble. Instead of having the salmon that I put out for them, he took the girls to Wendy's. When I come home, the girls are in the middle of their "dinner." Avery's mouth turns red and she starts saying that her throat hurts and feels scratchy and funny. I looked inside her mouth and she had hives. I give her Benadryl. I don't know what it could have been. Looking at the Wendy's allergy information, very very very few items have peanuts (just their Butterfinger candy for shakes have peanuts, and their M&Ms may contain peanuts). Avery was eating chicken nuggets, which do contain milk. Either the nuggets were minutely exposed to peanuts, or she is reacting to milk again. I don't know which. Thanks goodness we only have a couple more days to go before her allergy appointment. I might have her re-tested, either the scratch test or a blood test. I think Avery is still too young for a peanut challenge. So it goes...

So we went to the library Luau on Saturday. It was really quite a lot of fun. They had so many crafts and the dancers were phenomenal! I think that my favorite was the slap dance that the men and boys did. It's really great that the library puts on these programs for free.

Sorry that the pictures are so horrible. I brought my camera only to find that the batteries were completely missing (lesson learned: the kids can steal batteries from you at any time), luckily Riley brought her camera, but it ran out of batteries too. So I was left with my cell phone. Hence the horrible pictures.

At the end, the dancers taught the kids some moves. We learned that Riley has absolutely no body-awareness. (Dear, your shoulders are not the same as your hips! But hey, you're the first to dance the hula with your shoulders!) Avery was actually pretty good and followed the directions well. Rudi took one look at Riley and was like "Um, that girl needs to take dance lessons." So yeah, maybe we'll put Riley in dance classes. Who knows?

So, as everyone already knows, Avery ate a contaminated cookie from Perkin's restaurant. It wasn't too bad, but still scary. Just wanted to document it here in case I need to reference the experience later. You know, this is like my online diary. The first time she coughed and vomited, and her mouth turned red. That was at Riley's school when she actually ate a bite of a peanut butter cookie. This time the cookie didn't have peanuts or peanut butter in it, just cross-contaminated somehow. She coughed, said her throat was hurting (perhaps hives in her throat? I should have looked, in hindsight) and vomited. An immediate dose of Benadryl stopped the reaction. But I keep hearing that the third time's the charm, and that reactions get worse, so I just now called her allergist and she has an appointment on Friday at 10:15 to discuss an epi-pen. Yay. This also means that the epi pen must go everywhere with her, which means that I should carry a bag. Which means I should get a bag.

Again, we went to the Preschool program at the Garden of the Gods Nature Center. This time the girls learned about the birds in the park, and made binoculars out of toilet paper tubes. Avery think they're real binoculars. It's kind of cute.

Of course, even though this craft did not involve glue, Avery had to wash her hands. She's so neat and clean like that.

....while you're "enjoying" sub-freezing temperatures, it's sunny and warm, in the 60s in the great state of Colorado!! (feel free to rub it in my face next time we have a cold snap)


We went to the Money Museum today (because it's free) and the girls had a good time there. Better than I thought they would. Actually, Avery and Riley were both much more interested in the execution of King Charles I than anything else in the museum. Oh, well, I have morbid children, what do you expect?

Then we headed over to Old Colorado City for the Ice On the Avenue show. The ice sculptures were really cool. Not the best day for it, honestly, since it was so warm. Well, it was nice for the spectators, but not the sculptures!

Afterward, we walked around window shopping and looking at galleries. Riley and Avery got these horrible white-chocolate covered "snowmen" that made me sick to the stomach just looking at them. Yuck. But they loved them and they were a treat, so....