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Thursday, August 2, 2012

Lions and Tigers and Day Cares, Oh my!

The month of July was an fun and incredibly hot one for Harrison!  We tried as often as possible to get him out and about while remembering how dangerous it can be for little ones when the temperature gets high.

Dan decided to take a day off work a few weeks ago so we could take Harrison to the Como Zoo bright and early before it got too warm.  Our sleepy head has become accustomed to sleeping until 9am recently so it was a shock to all of our systems to be up and ready to go before the zoo opened.  I was pleasantly surprised at how alert Harrison was during our trip through the zoo.  He could pick out animals from across the fields and stared with a bizarre intensity at all the strange creatures.  It was almost as if by seeing all of the animals for the first time, his understanding of the world had been shaken.







Harrison's favorite animals were the fish (REALLY?) and the giraffes.  While walking through the aquarium I realized that the little kids are the only ones that stop and look at fish while at the Como Zoo.  No older child cares about the walleye in the mucky tank.  My kid was thoroughly impressed. The least favorite animal of the day went to the gorillas. The gorillas were inside the morning we were there.  I rolled Harrison's stroller right up to the glass, the biggest gorilla sat approximately 5 feet away from him.  The intensity in that gorilla's stare was unnerving. Even though it was behind thick glass, something about the way he was staring at my baby set my mommy radar right off. I was officially freaked out.  Then the gorilla stood up and started pounding on his chest at Harrison.  That was all it took, I wheeled Harrison right on out of that monkey death trap :)

The animal adventures continued at the Slice of Shoreview.  Unfortunately we missed the parade (sleepy head decided it was too early to get up) but we did check out the petting zoo.  The petting zoo consisted of goats, a donkey, a camel and red kangaroos.  While a little too young to participate in the feeding of the animals, Harrison did enjoy staring at them!  I'm excited for the years to come when he will be a little older and able to participate in more of the activities The Slice has to offer.








July also marked the last month of Diana watching Harrison while I work.  We are so excited for her new job, but also sad.  I am incredibly grateful and blessed that she was able to watch him for so long.  I was very fortunate to never experience the tears and nervousness that comes with going back to work.  Harrison LOVED spending time with Diana and Noelle and I know he will miss them a lot!





We've started the search for a new place for Harrison while I'm working and now I understand why a lot of mom's stay at home with their kids.  99.9% of day cares are nightmares, and the other would require most to take out a second mortgage.  We haven't quite settled on a place for Harrison yet, but we're getting there.  The hardest point for us has been that I'm still only working a few days a week and many places have a 3-day minimum.  I'm imagining that the first place we find for Harrison will be temporary until I either obtain more hours or start working full time (hopefully soon!)  After that, bring on the big-bucks place!

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