Mini-Daddy

(Oops! Pictures in backwards order here. Oh well! You get the picture! The lil man loves to be like his Daddy...they are quite a pair. My boys...oh, how I love them so!)

Manatee Monday

The boys...just chillin' and waiting their turn to try out a manatee game in the museum.

Electricity!

Working on a power plant puzzle. Hmmmm...puzzling.

BC, checking out fake bones that we tried to place in the correct spots to make the manatee skeleton.

Unless they were coming up for air, you mostly saw big "lumps" in the water...just a bit of their backs sticking up. In person, we could see a lot!

Hello Mr. Manatee! Wish the pictures had turned out better...they really have such cute and sweet faces!

There! He spotted some!

Oh, yuck. Serves as a good reminder to not waste electricity...maybe we could stop A LITTLE of that from polluting our environment!

The boys...trying to find some manatees!

This past Monday, we went a few miles south and visited the Manatee Viewing Center. It's located right next to our HUGE power plant (It's so ugly and disgusting-looking...makes me think about going off the grid! GASP! What is my hubbie thinking about that?!? ) BUT, the one cool thing about the power plant is that it does make the surrounding waters warmer, which attracts MANY manatees in the winter, when the Gulf temperatures dip below 60 degrees. We had a couple of very cold weeks, so it was the perfect time to visit the manatees! Bear Cub was so excited and could've stayed the whole day, I bet. I was happy that we finally found the "right" spot to be in because at first, we didn't see any manatees, although we did see some jumping sting rays, which was fun too! :) Oh! And another great thing...this is open FREE to the public! It was a great learning experience for us all!

Enjoy the pics of our fun outing with friends from this past Monday! Happy weekend to you all!

Random photo fun!

BC's Christmas butterfly kit is going really well! Our caterpillars formed their chrysalids and now we are waiting patiently for the painted lady butterflies to emerge. BC, the scientist, has LOVED this experiment (Mommy & Daddy, too!).

This is the cup that the tiny caterpillars came in. It was amazing to watch them grow bigger, and bigger, and BIGGER each day. It took about 2 weeks for the chrysalids to form.

Playing some b-ball in his room with Daddy. After he makes a shot, they both yell, "Booyah!" and do some excited jumping around. Pretty fun! :)

Wow, here it is Thursday already! It's been a busy and full week here! I'll post more later, but at least you'll see a few pictures. :) We've all been dealing with a little head cold, so it will be nice to just relax and re-coop over the weekend. Bear Cub had a good week at school and I've had some great workouts at the gym, so all is well! ;) Ok, will post more again soon. Happy Friday tomorrow!!

Our friend, Lily

Dear Lily,

We all really love it when you come over to our house to play! We know how you squeeze through your fence, look to see if Zoe is outside, and then dash across the street to play. You have a lot of energy ... you are still a puppy! Thanks for playing with Zoe and giving her SO much exercise as you chase and play, chase and play, all around the yard. Bear Cub is so excited when he sees you coming, too! He loves to play too, so switch your attention to him once Zoe is down and panting. She's an old lady compared to you! We'll keep giving you a treat or two when you come to play and before your Mommy comes rushing over to grab you. You are a fun friend for us all!

Sincerely,

The Bear Family

P.S. PLEASE just make sure you look both ways before you cross that street!

Dr. Bear Cub...calling Dr. Bear Cub!

Dr. Bear Cub!

He even works on reptiles! Here he is...working on Lizzie the Lizard while Zoe tries to get in on the action!

"Picking fleas" off of Coconut

BC says, "Thump, thump!" as he checks their hearts

Bear Cub received a vet kit for Christmas and has had SO much fun playing animal doctor, and "vet car" as he calls it. We get all the sick animals loaded into the big bath tub and then I act as his assistant while he checks blood pressure, hearts, looks for fleas, and trims toe nails. He's one busy doctor! He always ends each visit with some "snuggle time" for the animal. It is adorable! Maybe one day he'll really be a vet...this boy LOVES animals! :)

Bear Cub is officially 3 1/2!!

Just a little "remember when" photo from his days in Russia. This photo was included in our referral packet, taken when he was about 8 months old. Sweet baby boy...so tiny!

What a big boy he is TODAY! :)

On Saturday, Bear Cub officially turned 3 1/2 years old! WOW! I remember posting on Jan. 9, 2008, that he was 18 months old. How quickly time flies by! He continues to be our pride and joy, making us laugh and smile every single day. He is smart, curious, STILL loves to read (can even identify some words on his own now!) and is very verbal. The "Why?" questions continue and he honestly soaks every word in. He can tell you about metamorphosis, trains, sharks and MUCH more. I can't believe he's 3 1/2. It seems like not so long ago, he was a quiet, worried baby boy that clung to us for dear life. He still clings, but in a good way, giving us lots of love but can now venture off and hold his own in lots of different situations. We are SO proud. :)

So, here's a Happy Half Birthday to my precious, precious son!

Date night!

Good morning! Well, hubby and I had a successful date night yesterday! We have a sweet teen girl that lives directly across from us, so I finally gave her a call last week to set up a couple of hours away. She came over on Friday to meet BC and let him show her around. He didn't want her to leave that afternoon! He knew that we would be going out to dinner, so he looked at me and said, "Go Mommy! You ARE hungry!" But, he had to wait another 24 hours before he finally got his alone time with that lovely lady. ;)

Leading up to 5:00, BC was at our front window, looking at Terry's house, calling out, "Terry! Come over NOW!" Too funny! Once she was here, he had a quick moment of, "Don't leave, Mommy!" but soon got busy with her. We had a nice, relaxing dinner out. Nothing fancy...just Chilis...but it was still so good to have a slow meal and nice conversation! Bear Cub did great with his sitter -- they played trains and she was even sweet enough to bring him over a new little plastic frog for his collection. I thought that was so nice!

Bear Cub did not want her to leave, but we promised that we'd have her over again. And she didn't seem too shell-shocked by the whole experience (Ha! She said he was very good. Yay!), so I imagine we'll get her back again soon. We walked her to the door and BC yelled, "Good night, Terry! Thank you!" as she started to cross the street. He then decided he wanted to hug her, so he ran down the steps for a big hug. And then...came THE KISS. He wanted to kiss her lips SO bad and she kept giving him a cheek instead. He finally grabbed her face, and planted a big one right on her lips. I don't think she was expecting all of that LOVE from him! Oh my...what a ladies' man. ;)

It was a great night out and a New Year's resolution for us to do that more often. Yay for a great babysitter! :)

Picture post!

Our weather has been really cold here (for us, anyway!). We're only supposed to see a high of 41 degrees tomorrow! So, the boy who has NEVER wanted a blanket (never, ever) has decided that maybe it does feel good to be covered, at least a little! And of course, he's got his best bud, Biscuit, there to help keep him warm too! :)

Is it wrong to make your dog sit like this?? She was so funny last night because she actually stayed like this for a few minutes. I swear she's part human! :)

Just chillin' with Dad, watching some TV last night

BC loves to set up his puppies on pillows and in all types of situations around the house. I'll have to take a picture of what he does with them all in the bath tub sometime...now that's pretty funny!

Watch out for the gator!

Awww...our little conch shell boy :)

Checking out the tree frogs at the aquarium last Monday. It was so chilly out that they were all huddled in that corner of the display!

He was so excited to be at the aquarium in Tampa! He loved ALL the fish and was so happy and agreeable all day! :)

He bought a battery-powered "mote and troll" train for his GeoTrax set with some Christmas money. He loves this thing and wants to add more to the collection. So now we have dueling train sets in the play room -- the new one from Mimi and the old GeoTrax set. Our lil conductor!

Checking out his future purchases...

BC...watching Daddy put batteries into the new train. Do you think he was excited? (And yes, his shirt does say, "Mommy's Little Man...have to do it while I can!)

Plain sweetness...

As I came upstairs tonight, Bear Cub ran right up to me, hung on to my legs and said, "I love you, Mommy!" Of course, I said, "I love you too! That made me feel so happy inside!"

I then asked what he loved about me and his priceless response was, "Because you are cool!"

Yup, I think he's pretty cool too! :)

Happy New Year!!

BC meets his new cousin! She's a doll!

Wanting so badly to touch her head...he's gentle, but not quite gentle enough always!

Oh my...isn't she precious??

A proud Uncle!

I'm an Aunt again! ;)

Proud Grandma...just before the puppy play time with BC started!

A new family! They are all doing really well!

BC and Mimi doing some online research about frogs

Happy New Year's Day!

An artist at work...again, the turtleneck makes him look SO serious!

Happy 2010, everyone! Hope your New Year is off to a great start! We've had a fantastic weekend here -- Daddy has been off since Thursday afternoon and he'll even be home with us tomorrow! YAY! We rang in the new year at home -- in bed by 10:45 p.m. PARTY animals! ;) On New Year's Day, we headed over to my mom's for a delicious meal of black-eyed peas, rice, and BBQ ribs. Oh my...it was fantastic! The black-eyed peas are a tradition in our family...maybe only in the South? A New Year's meal with black-eyed peas is supposed to bring good luck. Anybody else out there have that tradition??

We spent the night with her and the next day, we went over to Aunt S and Uncle T's house to meet our sweet baby niece! She is 5 days old and just so beautiful, adorable and sweet! She is snuggly and just a little bundle of love. We loved meeting her and holding her. Bear Cub kept saying, "I'm so excited to see what she looks like!" But once there, he was more interested in the train set we had brought with us and his train dvd. BC also had a blast playing "puppies" with Grandma in their office...we didn't see either one of them for at least an hour and a half! He wanted desperately to hold his new cousin, but we'll wait a few months on that. She's still so BRAND new! :) We're very happy to have her in our family!

Enjoy the pictures! More to come this week...