Loralai Jane

I wanted to write a post about Loralai because being the second child, she gets the shaft sometimes. What I mean is she doesn't get as many pictures or new toys and we have been going to and from Tyler's school events and baseball games, sometimes she might feel overlooked. She has been wonderful at Tyler's baseball games, cheering (actually, she screams to be louder than me) and clapping. She loved going to Tyler's graduation, she even crawled up on stage with him to help him except his award. The picture above is funny because it's Drew's foot and Loralai love's her dad's feet. She hugs them whenever she walks by and pats them...maybe she feels sorry for them.
I just snuck up on Loralai in the picture above. I work with Tyler on his speech a little everyday and she was just listening in the background and repeating some of the sounds I was saying to Tyler. She acts as my little helper often. She didn't know I was sneaking up behind her, so she was startled and started laughing when she saw me with the camera.
Loralai was sound asleep in this picture, after I took it Drew woke up, but she stayed asleep. Drew is such an amazing dad, he spends so much time not only playing with Tyler, but Loralai too. Her favorite thing to do right now is pick out a purse and a toy cellphone, then walk around with the purse and talk on the phone. The sweetest (and funniest) thing I have seen is my 6' 4" husband carry a purse and talk on the cellphone to make Loralai giggle. She is such a joy as a daughter, so sweet and giggly!

Here are a list of her favorites as of now (17 months):

Food: dried fruit, apples, strawberries, bananas, ham, carrots

Movie: Baby Faith God Made Music

Color: She grabs pink a lot, especially when pointing at shoes

Books: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?; Pat the Bunny; The ABC book of objects; God Made Colors; The Wheels on the Bus

Songs: Hot Dog Song (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse); No One (Alicia Keyes); Hot Potato (The Wiggles)

Toys: Purse, cellphone, Princess basketball set

Lily Lizard

Tyler has been asking for a pet for so long that Loralai has started saying "Dog" whenever he talks about wanting a pet. Drew and I would love to get the kids a dog, only we don't have a fenced in backyard, and we have no plans to fence in the backyard because we love all the big trees that are at the back of our yard. We don't want to close the wooded area out. So for now our pet is a lizard we found under the stairs at the front of our house. Tyler named it "Lily Lizard". We see Lily at least once a day on our front steps and occasionally give her leaves and berries. She usually crawls away really fast when Tyler tries to pick her up, but Tyler is satisfied with Lily as a "pet" for now. Loralai picks up dirt, rocks, and grass...really anything around and tries to feed Lily Lizard.
Below is a picture of the rose bush I haven't killed yet!
Tyler and Loralai check out our zucchini and squash plants that seem to be growing in nicely. I have taken advice from a couple of friends from Indiana on how not to kill these.

My Little Zookeepers

Here are a few pictures from our trip to the zoo. Some are from the Fort Worth Zoo when we visited in April. Some are from the Atlanta Zoo:
Tyler was so excited about feeding the parakeets at the Fort Worth Zoo! He stayed in the bird cage for about 30 minutes just feeding the birds!
Loralai liked the crocodiles! She sat in front of the glass and just smiled and occasionally would look through the glass and tap. When the crocodile moved she backed away pretty quickly!

This was taken in front of the Rhino. It was huge and actually pretty close to the fence. He seemed to be in a pretty good sleep, so I wasn't too nervous.Tyler backed up to the Panda and said, "Take the picture quick!"

I was never much of a zoo person (not crazy about the smell). Seeing how much my kids enjoy the animals makes me enjoy going now! Loralai's favorite animals were the meerkats, unfortunately I couldn't get a picture! She would giggle so loud and say "Bubbles!!" which is her absolute favorite thing in life right now, so I guess she says that when she likes anything a lot. Tyler loved the parakeets and crocodiles and says he wants to be a zookeeper, magician, and drain maker when he grows up. The drain maker will have to be explained in a later post!