Weekend Recap: Animals & Belly Buttons!

I'm still behind on the 18 and 19 month posts plus I wanted to do a separate hospital post, but there are not enough hours in the day.   Not even close!  Not to mention, my laptop is completely full thanks to my tens of thousands of photos, so I had to do a little rearranging which has taken up a lot of my precious time.  :)  But anyway, on to the weekend!  It was a great one, mostly because Benji was happy, healthy, and pain-free!  I cannot believe he has done so well following his surgery.  The one prior to this was rough and it took him a good week to get back to his old self.  This time around, he was climbing on the window to get to the couch like a little monkey the day we got home from the hospital.  He is amazing.

I, on the other hand, have been so relieved to be done with his surgeries that I have just been exhausted.     It's like my lack of sleep and worry and adrenaline have caught up with me and I'm spent!  In fact, I'm so tired right now that I can't even remember what we did on Friday night, but I'm pretty sure whatever it was included an early bedtime.  Benji has been up with the early-to-rise sun these days, so we started Saturday morning with a trip to Panera before music class while Andy ran (and rocked) a 5k.  After this, we brought Benji in for a haircut.  They continue to be more traumatic with time, but thankfully it was a quick cut.  And as if looking like a total stud wasn't enough, Auntie Anna met up with us after the cut and bought Benji a chocolate-covered pretzel.

While we were in the neighborhood, we went with Auntie Anna to check out an apartment she was considering moving to.  It is teeny tiny but I'm sure she will make it super cute!  It is a great location that I know will be a ton of fun this summer.  Since we were in the neighborhood, we checked out my friend Sarah's new house too!  So, so, so excited that she will be so close.  Ben is excited too and couldn't help them unload quickly enough. :)  We visited with them before we went home and attempted to put Ben down for a nap.  When that didn't work, Uncle Joe and Grandpa came over and played with him for awhile.  This kid is SO loved.  Benji and daddy had a boys night on Saturday and I went to my cousin's dance recital.  Ben is in love with his cousin Emmy, so I didn't tell him where I was going.  ;)

Ben was up around 5:00 again on Sunday (ugh!) so we went to Panera (again) to start our day.   Andy and I had our Love and Logic parenting class again and then I went to a baby shower.  I was home a whole 5 minutes before Benji tapped into the onesie cookie I brought home.  

We had some time to kill before our BIG dinner plans, so we decided to head to the zoo since it was (FINALLY) a beautiful day.  It is hard to tell from these first couple of pictures, but Ben was mighty happy!

We kicked off our trip with a ride on the train.   Ben LOVES watching trains, so he was thrilled when he got to "choo-choo, on! on!"  He actually wanted to drive the train, but he was still content waving to "kids!" 

These trips to the zoo just get better and better because he can now tell us what animals he wants to see.  I am pretty sure he was traumatized from our goat trip a few weeks ago, because he was initially afraid to go in by the goats.  However, it wasn't long before he was picking and choosing which goats he wanted to feed and asking for more food.  He was so proud of himself and so was I.  :)

Feeding the goats, one little food pebble at a time.

Yet again, he proves that he is way more brave than his momma. 

He wasn't even afraid of the scary tiger that kept walking past him.  He just kept making his best lion noise.  Love him.

After an action-packed day at the zoo, it was time for dinner at my mom's.  I am pretty sure my brother was kidding when he asked when the belly button reveal party was, but my mom and sister ran with the idea, and before we knew it, there was a "belly button launch" party planned in honor of Ben.  In my mind, the main reason for celebrating is that he is DONE with his tummy surgeries, but having a belly button is pretty exciting too.  My mom slaved over another amazing meal and we had a full table of people who were excited to see Benji's button!  The steri strips were still in place, but you get the idea.  Look at how proud he is!  I am even more proud than that, but for different reasons. :)  The meal was complete with belly button cheese cakes!  What can't my mom do?!  The party was a huge success.  Thanks for everything, Nana!