Da Zoo

Elephant! 


Kristyn helping Kyrie out 

On Thursday Auntie Cathy along with her niece, Kristyn, invited Kyrie, Nana, and I to the zoo. We had a wonderful time looking at the lions, giraffes, and elephants. Kyrie is big into elephants currently, so I was excited for her to see a real one. Apparently the live ones are not that exciting because she wasn't all that interested. What really got her going were the lions, cheetahs, and other cat-like animals.

After putting Kyrie to bed that night, she woke up at 1:30am just screaming, scaring the dickens out of both Matt and I. After trying to surmise the problem I believe I have come to the conclusion that she had a nightmare. We saw a gorilla picking his nose at the zoo - I might've had nightmares about that, too!

Finally, a new development in the life of Kyrie is that she is making animal noises. You can ask her what a cat, dog, duck, lamb, and fire truck say and she will make the sound for you. Okay, so a fire truck isn't an animal, but she sure does love the sound they make! And, her version is way cuter.

Lunch in the Park

Run, Forest. Run. 


Ummm....anyone know what this thing is for? 


Did you want that? 


Trade ya? 

Yesterday, we had lunch in the park with Lori and Elliot. Elliot is 2-1/2 and it is fun to watch he and Kyrie together. They are growing to be quite the buddies and know each other by name, now. Kyrie says, "E-yi-a" and chases him around. She even gave him the cutest kiss yesterday, with a lipsmack and everything. I wish I had had the video camera.

Today we went to the zoo with Auntie Cathy and her niece Kristyn, who is also 2-1/2. Kyrie was enthralled with the gorillas, lions, elephants, and giraffes. We have books with pictures of all of these animals and we tell her what sound they make (which she gets a big kick out of), but it was so neat to see her reaction to the real live thing. When she saw the lion she made a "reow" like a kitty-cat. I had to laugh at that, since I am not sure she would enjoy the actual sound they make.

We left for the zoo after Kyrie's morning nap (around 10am) and got home around 1:30pm. I immediately put Kyrie to bed and she didn't get up till 4:20pm! I guess the zoo is an exhausting place to go - who knew?! Actually, I am kinda tired, too now that I think about it!

I forgot my camera for the zoo adventure, but I will ask Cathy to pass some of hers on to me and hopefully can post one soon. Happy Trails.

Bloggity Blog Blog Blog

Whoa, what happened here? 


Dora! 

Okay, so it has been a long time! Matt finished his CFP exam, I took the week off of work, and as a result the rest of life got pushed to the side. Unfortunately, so did the picture-taking...so I have no new pictures from the last week - oops!

We also took a long weekend in the Dells this past weekend - which was nice, relaxing, and a great time - for which I also have no pictures thanks to my camera conveniently deciding not to work. Oh well. We went to Noah's Ark on Sat. with both sets of grandparents as well as Uncle Jim - Kyrie loved the Lazy River. I think she would've fallen asleep if we had kept going around. Matt and I also stayed an extra night without the Lovebug (sent her home with Nana) and got to enjoy daquiris and filet mignon all to ourselves. We had a very nice time, but the real celebration of the anniversary is coming in October when we head to New York for the U2 concert - something I am very much looking forward to!

Hopefully there will be more (and better) photos coming soon!

Five Year Anniversary

5 years ago! 

Boy time sure does fly when you're having fun, hey? We can't believe it has been five years! Thought I would have some fun and post a picture of us at our rehearsal dinner. We look young, hey?!

Baby Shower

J.J. did not like the corsage 


Diaper cake, real cake, cookies! 

Cathy, my mom, and I threw J.J. a baby shower today. I think it went pretty well. J.J. got a lot of nice gifts and especially received a lot of support from her friends and family and that always feels wonderful. Only four weeks till d-day, now!

Harry Potter Party

Looking a little tired??? 


Countdown to Midnight 


At long last.... 


Let's go, it's time to read! 


Kyrie Potter - Harry's long lost sister 

As most of you know, I have become somewhat of a Potter Fanatic....staying up till Midnight on Friday/Saturday to get my book qualifies as a little off the deep-end, no? Well, here are some pictures from our night. It was a lot of fun - we got Harry Potter tattoos, bracelets, stickers, photos, etc. all as a part of the party. And, we even managed to stay awake and got our books around 12:20am. I only stayed up to read three chapters, but I do believe it was all worth it. Read the book! Call me!!!!!!!!!!

Big Day

Daddy before his exam - do you see any resemblance between these two? 


Andi and sons Ethan and Logan (7 months) and Anna and daughter Samantha (10 months) 


Anna's Daughters - Emily and Samantha (10 months) 


Heather and Julia 

Did you know that today is Harry Potter Eve? Yup, tonight at midnight (a.k.a July 16th 12:00pm) the 6th Harry Potter Book - The Half-Blood Prince - is being released. Like a kid in a candy store, I will be going to Barnes and Noble tonight with Heather and cousin Jim to take part in the festivities as well as to pick up my book. I am unbelievably excited. I feel like it is Christmas...or my birthday...or something along those lines.

It is also a big couple of days in the life of Matthew Kons. Matt is taking the first portion of his CFP exam as we speak and will take the 2nd and 3rd parts tomorrow. Halleluia, we are really close now! Please send up a prayer for him as he really needs all of the support he can get.

Today Kyrie and I escaped the heat by meeting friends at the mall. Anna and Andi each have a set of twins and Heather, of course, has Julia (now 3 months old). It was hectic at first to get everyone settled, but once all the kids had full tummies we moms could finally hunt down our lunches and everyone behaved spectacularly. It is always fun to go out with "the moms".

Finally, tomorrow I am also co-hosting a baby shower for my sister. She is just 4 weeks out now and we are looking forward to meeting BoBear. I hope I am not too tired tomorrow from the HP Party and potentially staying up way too late reading the book after I get it at midnight! But, it should be a lot of fun. Stay tuned for photos.

Aunts and Ants

Boy, she sure does look grown up in this photo, doesn't she? 


Ahhhh....here's my baby. 


Wait for me! 

Today we had lunch with Auntie J.J. and Uncle Jim. We went to Potbelly's which is a nice sandwich place on Bluemound. We had a good time, but it was a bit loud in there. After Kyrie's second nap we were going to go outside and play when we discovered the most peculiar thing. There was some sort of creature crawling around on our carpet. "Ant, Kyrie, Ant". Hmmmmm.....that sounds suspiciously like "Aunt", no? Well, what was really interesting is how fearless Kyrie was of the ant. She tried to pick it up, she chased it around, she practically squished it in her fingers, and I was worried she was going to try and eat it! I had to do everything in my power not to freak out every time she attempted a pick up. I reasoned that babies need these experiences of the world around them and who am I to give her a fear of ants at the tender age of 15 months? A fear of ants is more rational at 28, no? (Years, that is!) Eventually, I took her into the other room, distracted her and ran back into the living room to stomp the precious life out of that cute little creature. Ugh. Out of my house, you. Aunts are allowed (welcomed, in fact). Ants are not!

Kyrie, Kyrie, Kyrie the Explorer

"Backpack!" 


Backpack, backpack, backpack 


Hmmmm....where is the banana? 

Okay, so I finally gave in...I really want Kyrie to learn Spanish at an early age and Matt and I have brainstormed different ways to make this happen. At first we tried to do our best in talking in Spanish around her, but our best just happens to be really bad! Matt has a friend who is a Spanish teacher and she is very into Dora the Explorer, so I caved and bought a video. At first, Kyrie was so NOT interested. She would look up occassionally but most of the time she ran from room to room grabbing toys and throwing them around, coming back only if she heard a song being sung. One week later, however, and she is addicted - and I am not exaggerating. She pulls me (and anyone else who will be pulled) into the living room to demand that the television be turned on. Crap! That's what I was trying to avoid. Well, at least it is for an educational program, right?

The fun thing is that in every episode of Dora you have to say a couple of key words. Two of those words are "backpack" and "map". I am proud to say that Kyrie can now say both. Dora says, "Can you help us out? Say 'backpack'." And, Mommy says, "Say backpack, Kyrie." "Baa-paae, baa-paae" Say "map" Kyrie - "maaap". Of course, there is Spanish, too, but those words seem to change with every episode - we're working on it.

After a week of watching the same four episodes of Dora over and over again I have somewhat tired of them. So, I decided to bring out the VeggieTales videos. After watching for about 10 minutes Kyrie ran to her room and brought back a book - would you believe it was her VeggieTales book? I was so impressed. (Oh yeah, and you can add "Bob" to her vocabulary now, too. Bob is the tomato in VeggieTales.)

The highlight of my day today: The Kyrie sandwich kiss that Mommy and Daddy laid on Kyrie before bedtime - she actually tolerated it and seemed to like it, for once!

The low of my day: Kyrie falling into the coatrack and hitting her head VERY hard. She has a welt on her forehead and a scrape on her cheek - and I nearly had a heart attack from the sound of her screams.