Vacation...Part 3

Before heading home we drove east for a quick stint in Little Rock where we stopped by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library which is a complete misnomer since it's a museum and not a library at all. We opted not to pay the $7 admission fee to see a replica of the Oval Office and took a few pictures outside instead. Fortunately, putting Caleb in the fountain was free:)

Our last stop in Little Rock was to see one of the largest pedestrian bridges which happens to be built near a dam which lends itself to myriad opportunities for "legal" swearing (e.g. that's a big dam bridge, where's the dam parking lot?, we need some dam directions). Here are some dam pictures of the Big Dam Bridge (yes, that's actually what it's called and I took a picture to prove it).

The dam sign is more impressive than the dam bridge.

And that concludes our dam fine vacation!

Vacation...Part 2

Perhaps our most memorable adventure took place on lake Ouachita (wa-chi-ta) where we had the brilliant idea to rent a paddle boat.

Problem #1: 5-month-old babies do not like wearing life jackets that are intended for 12-month-old babies.

Problem #2: 5-month-old babies cannot sit by themselves in a paddle boat and must be held while on said boat.

Problem #3: A person cannot hold a 5-month-old baby on his/her lap and peddle a paddle boat at the same time.

Problem #4: If only one person peddles a paddle boat, you don't go in circles (contrary to popular belief) but you also don't get very far before the solo peddler's leg muscles seize up in spasms.

Problem #5: if you rent a paddle boat for 1/2 hour, but your legs seize up because there is only one person peddling, and then the wind picks up so on the way back you are peddling into the wind and against the current, you end up keeping the paddle boat for 1 1/2 hours (fortunately, David was peddling on the return:).

Ours was the sparkly red one and we quickly discovered that the sparkle finish retained heat from the blazing sun well enough to scorch your buns if you weren't careful:

Oops, I guess these pictures expose us as having removed the life jacket at one point to give our boy some fresh air.

Our little water baby:

After a good night's rest we headed to a beautiful botanical garden in Hot Springs. This picture does no justice to how strenuous it was pushing the stroller up the hills keeping in mind the fact that my legs were laden with lactic acid built up from the previous day's paddle boat adventure.

Just moments after this picture was taken,

Caleb had the mother of all blow-outs and I quickly discovered that I only had a cold-weather spare outfit with me. So we put it on him and then rolled and unsnapped wherever possible to keep him from overheating. Dipping him in the water helped, too:)

From water baby to mountain man!

A little more to come...

Vacation...Part 1

David was on vacation last week and the fun started right away with a trip to the largest rose garden in America which is just one of the many gems Shreveport has to offer. Unfortunately, there weren't very many roses in bloom so we were somewhat underwhelmed but had fun nevertheless.

A great reminder:

Here's daddy-of-the-year using my nursing cover to try and block the sun's harmful UV rays from damaging his son's skin.

We're still checking Caleb's feet daily to see if there is any residual fungus from dangling his feet in this stagnant water.

Next, we headed off on a road trip to Arkansas to see some spectacular southern sights (how's that for alliteration?).With our only car that has power locks, power windows, cruise control, car seat base and a legitimate back-seat baby mirror in the shop, we were forced to be adaptive. Here is daddy MacGyver rigging up a mirror contraption with some rope, a hand-held mirror and a large car washing sponge.

Our destination was Hot Springs, Arkansas so named for its...hot springs. Here is one of many fountains around town where you can drink the hot spring water...after it's cooled, of course.

Having a bout of amnesia regarding our location, I was surprised when I put my hand in this water and it was quite HOT!

There are several bathhouses downtown where you can pay exorbitant amounts of money to bath in the magical waters of the hot springs. We settled for a tour of one of the oldest bathhouses which featured a needle shower...

....a gymnasium...

...and beautiful locker rooms which were the perfect place to...(where's Waldo?)

...nurse...

...and change a poopy diaper.

And we didn't even get busted by the museum police!

Caleb spent his first two nights in a hotel which was an adventure for all of us! Good thing he's so darn cute.

More to come...

Knuckle Sandwiches and Rice Cereal

Here's a quick update on Caleb's latest tricks:

Eating knuckle sandwiches

Interlocking his toes when he's concentrating

Adjusting the position of his bottle using his feet

Reading books

Telling stories (check out his tongue dexterity, too:)

Rejecting rice cereal

Supervising me while I do chores

Yielding to the Earth's gravitational pull

Splashing his daddy in the bathtub


Sticking out his tongue for minutes at a time

So maybe it was misleading to introduce this post as a "quick" update...oops:)