Animals don't get Labor Day off...

Animals don't get Labor Day off, but fortunately, I did! So since I was off and the animals weren't, we decided to pack up and head to the Philadelphia Zoo. The last time we were at the zoo, Kaylani was just a little over 5 months old and fit snuggly into the Baby Bjorn. And at 5 months, Kaylani wasn't interested in much of anything and probably couldn't see all too far, so it's safe to say that the zoo wasn't overly exciting. This time, on the eve of her 10 month birthday, everything was different.

We started off around 10am with Kaylani in her stroller. Once we rolled into the zoo we realized that the stroller just wasn't going to cut it. And once Kaylani was in Mommy's arms, it meant that she was able to follow Mommy's hand and finger all the way out to every animal we saw. First it was the camel that Kaylani waved at. Then it was the cheetah that Kaylani screamed hello too and bounced in excitement for. Next was the monkeys, and the ducks, and the rhino, and all the other animals.

The best part was seeing Kaylani's eyes light up every time she found the animal. First she'd just be staring off, maybe seeing something, or probably just staring at grass. Then, she'd slowly look around, and when she caught first sight of the animal, she would light up, smile, point, wave, bounce, and say hi in her cute little baby scream. Priceless.

If we had to guess which one was her favorite animal, we'd guess the sea otters since she pounded on the glass every time they swam by her. After seeing that, we knew that she loved to watch them, and also that we need to take a trip to the aquarium sometime soon. She also seemed to really like the cheetahs and the giraffes. Either way, we knew she had a great time and we're excited to go back. Luckily we're members and it's only 40 minutes away so we can go back whenever we want. Well, assuming we have a free weekend that is.

Anyways, my words probably don't do it justice, so check out these pictures we took today. I know I just posted pictures yesterday, but I gotta get these out there (and off my camera since I took 248 pictures). So sit back and enjoy Kaylani's 2nd trip to the zoo! There's even a great sequence of Daddy trying to get out of an egg (it'll make more sense when you see the pictures).

Reaching for the Animals

For $45, Kaylani has had nightly entertainment for the last 5 months. That turns out to be about 25 cents per night of entertainment (actually it turns out to be free since it was a gift from Madrina Maria). I'd say that's a pretty good deal and if I could have nightly entertainment at that price, I'd sign up right now (of course as adults, we're a bit pickier and anything that costs 25 cents per night or free probably isn't worth it). But soon, Kaylani's entertainment might get cancelled. Temporarily.

In case you're wondering, Kaylani's entertainment is her mobile. It's a wonderful array of 5 animals (rhino, giraffe, elephant, zebra, and chick) that just hang above her. Some nights she'll talk to them (we're unsure if they talk back when we're not here), other nights she'll just lay there and stare at them. On rare occasions they'll sing music to her, but that's only when we crank them up which is hardly ever. Watching her interact with them has been very touching, but lately, it's been that touching that causes us concern.

Some times when we look at Kaylani "sleeping" through her video monitor, we see her reaching high in the air trying to grab one of the animals. She's pretty smart about it too because she'll even roll onto one side so she can stretch her little arm that much higher. Although it's far away, we're pretty sure she can put her finger tips on at least one of them. And that's not a good thing.

Imagine if she reaches up and grabs an animal (let's use giraffe as an example because he's the tallest, even though all the animals are at the same height, but it would make the most sense for her to be able to grab the tallest one right?), gives it a good tug, and then the entire mobile comes crashing down on her. The possibility of that happening is enough to make us come up with an action plan. Unfortunately, action plans need time to work.

Our action plan is to lower her mattress. Upon further review, lowering the mattress requires taking the matress out, unscrewing 4 screws and rescrewing them back in. I know, it doesn't sound like a lot of work, but that has to be done between Daddy getting home from work and Kaylani going to bed, which is usually less than an hour, of which 30 minutes is used for dinner. So needless to say, that hasn't been done yet. The alternate plan is to remove the mobile for now, but our concern there is that without her nightly entertainment, she may not sleep as well as she does currently. And when 2 of the 3 past nights have involved her sleeping over 11 hours straight (last night was the 2nd time), it's hard to justify changing things now.

So for now, nothing's going to be done. Since she likes sleeping on her belly we're kinda just hoping she doesn't reach up for the animals and that the animals don't try and reach down to her. Maybe this weekend Daddy will stop making excuses and lower the crib. But until then, let's hope Kaylani listens to those famous words from Casey Casum: "Keep your hands on the ground and keep reaching for the floor." Well, something like that anyways.