Jacksonville Zoo

   Yesterday I left at 10:30 to head to Jacksonville to meet my family at the zoo. I really enjoyed when we went to the Florida Aquarium in September and thought this may be a similarly fun experience. I was supposed to leave at 9:30, but then realized that I had left my keys in Michael's car the night before and he was out running errands with Brian. (They are working on their Benthic and Edrio costumes - characters from Rogue One - for the Star Wars Celebration convention next month. Fun fact: Michael and I went to that convention in August 2010.) Luckily, remembering a hilarious article I read the other day about "not caring so much"/ wasting energy about little unimportant things, I didn't let the time delay bother me and wrote thank you cards to people until Michael and Brian got home an hour later.

   I narrowed down the pictures from 448 to 181, and filtered once more to 124, then picked my 48(!) personal favorites to post. I quickly switched from the regular kit lens to the zoom lens since a lot of the animals were farther away and think it gave my pictures a bit of a National Geographic look with the depth of field.  

 ^^ The Giraffe Hyena as Daddy called it.

   The lunch we had at the zoo was super good, including a Cuban sandwich, which might be a "pregnancy craving" since I have been eating more than usual and pick that option anytime it is available. Something about the great bread, salty ham and pickles. I could go for one right now. ;) We also all shared a churro which I could have eaten five more of all by myself!

 ^^ Waving to Peyton on the carousel.

 She didn't like the goats or want to pet them. That's the closest she would get, and even clung to me the first minute because Zach and my mom were too close to the goat.

 She loved running into her grandpa's arms!

 Exploring the playground and being patient when all the bigger kids ran up the stairs past her, so she waited her turn.

   I always like spending time with Peyton because I want her to remember me and love hearing her call me "Raysh", but am also very interested in hearing her say new words and see how her communication has progressed. This time saying "yah yah" and clapping her hands for "yes" seemed like a new thing. And would say "bye bye" to a lot of the animals (giraffe, "turto"/ turtle, "drayon"/ dragon) and a whispered "pengmmm" for penguin as if she was embarrassed that she couldn't fully grasp that word yet.

 In the next updated grandparents photo, who will hold Emma? :o

 ^^ Doing the robot? =) She still likes being held a lot and kept reaching her arms out to us, but also seemed to enjoy running around freely this day. But not as freely as she may have liked.

  Also since I complained about the weather last week when it was abnormally cold for a few days, I should mention how glorious and perfect the weather was at the zoo. I'm not sure of the temperature, maybe 78-82, but we were able to stand in the shade a lot of the time. The park also had a water pad play area for kids. 

Good to Me

  I thought it was strange that I have only had one baby dream so far, but after last night's that caused me to wake up crying at 3am, I'm fine not having any more. I'm not going to write what it was about since I don't want to remember it, but Michael woke up too and comforted me again so sweetly, hugging me and telling me that everything was fine (I told him the main issue of the dream/ nightmare). Luckily Chip/ Emma did nicely reassuring me as well, kicking me once I woke up and reminding me that she is still safe and growing into a healthy baby. Then I started crying just thinking about how much I'm going to love her and pictured us at The Aquarium- don't tell Michael this but often when I picture Emma she looks a lot like Peyton, but a little older and she can talk- her saying something cute and me just crying and hugging her because we are so lucky to be chosen as her parents and God is so good to us. She'll get used to it!
   Michael is such a wonderful husband -kind, loving, fun- and I've already thanked him twice today for being so sweet to me last night. Part of me is so happy that we're having a girl because he has always done so well handling my emotions (luckily they have been less "out of control" than they were the first five years he knew me), so I know he'll do well handling hers too. Sometimes when I'm at work I get really sad thinking about what I would do without him. But then I quickly try to not think about that and just send him a bunch of texts about how great he is!
  Right now Michael doesn't want us buying "so many" clothes for Emma, although he does want to start getting her room more decorated now that we know the gender. Tomorrow we're doing the Babies R Us registry because we want the bedding from there.  I understand that he feels like we have so many clothes for her already, but the gender neutral outfits we have so far are all different sizes: Newborn, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 12 months. So basically she'd only have 3 outfits (pajama onezies) to wear each "phase", which to me, does not seem like enough. I'm sure I'll get some clothes at the baby shower next month and my mom bought her some on sale clothes today at Carter's, along with new pieces for Peyton and Helena, which may turn into hand me downs later on. She sent me a picture of a super cute kitty sweater that I loved, so she bought it in two different sizes for Emma. I can't wait to see it on her! But I will wait, because I want her to be at least six pounds when she's born in 14-17 weeks. Another thing I can't really plan, causing me to have so many questions about. That's all her. ;)

   Update: I counted her clothing pieces in the closet ~ 6 Newborn outfits (mostly onezie pajamas and I want her to wear "regular clothes" during the day but I hear some babies don't even get to wear new born sizes- it all depends on how much they weigh when they're born), 12 pieces aged for 3-6 months, and 7 pieces aged for 6-9 months (including a white sweater which doesn't count because she'd still need to wear something under that). Nothing over that age except the 12 month super soft gray bathrobe I bought in November. Also she currently has 10 regular pairs of socks (4 wooly pink Newborn pairs that I just bought today, plus 6 mint green and gray for ages 6-18 months) and two pairs that are Halloween themed.