Birthday Fun

Matt took the day off for Melanie's birthday, both to help me get ready for the party and so we could go to the zoo. It was overcast all day, and it only got up to about 50 degrees, but we went to the zoo anyway and visited mostly indoor exhibits. Matt and I enjoyed ourselves, and Melanie was just happy to have us there, so I guess that counts as enjoying herself as well.

We visited the American Farm petting area (but didn't feed or pet any on the animals - way too cold and there was a good amount of school kids on field trips running around) and saw the new penguin exhibit and got to see feeding time there. Then we went to the reptile and amphibian house where it was nice and warm and walked around trying to find all the little slithery, crawly creatures in their display environments. Next we went to the jungle - my personal favorite from childhood, and took a leisurely stroll around. I think Melanie would have enjoyed it more if we had let her down to walk, but I'm pretty sure she would have started pulling up plants and chasing the free-roaming birds, so we restrained her. Finally we visited the orangutan and chimpanzee habitat. This was obviously the favorite of all the visiting school children - we had to wait quite a while to get a spot next to the glass so Melanie could get a closer look, and more importantly so I could get a picture of her getting a closer look. All bundled up on her first visit to the zoo



Nice and toasty in the jungle

The humidity in the jungle kept fogging up the camera lens

Melanie liked the waterfall - it really held her attention

Chatting with a chimp


After the zoo we went back home to finish up the party prep. Melanie enjoyed the balloons I brought home for decoration. She carried them around for quite a while, jerking the strings up and down so they would make that hollow noise they make when they bump into each other

For me?

Party!

We ended the day by having family over for cake and ice cream. Melanie wasn't used to having so many people in our house, but she eventually loosened up and had fun. It was pretty tough to get her interested in opening her gifts, and once she did she either wanted to take them all over to Gramps or just carry her newest treasure around and ignore the remaining unopened gifts. She made a pretty good haul, with quite a bit of the toys being for outdoor play including a sandbox, some sandbox toys and sidewalk chalk. She also got a toy shopping cart, which I'm sure will be full of all her treasures very soon. My personal favorite of all of the gifts was a scrapbook her Aunt Katie made of her first year. It's one of those things I'd like to think that I would one day sit down and do, but I'm really glad Katie did it because it makes it that much more special, and she did an awesome job, too.

Gramps helping Melanie decide what to load in her new cart

Melanie wasn't especially interested in her cake. She hasn't really had any sweets so far, and she refuses to finger feed herself anything that isn't dry (i.e. cheerios, toast) so it wasn't too surprising that she didn't dig right in to the frosting. She became a little more interested once we gave her a spoon, but then it was mostly just stabbing at the cake. So we let her play with it a little and then Grams and I gave her a bath so she could come play some more. Mom and Dad helping blow out the candle

What a big girl, sharing with her mommy!

(there was a Cheerio in my bite)

That's all the cake she ate. We even put a few Cheerios in it to make it more enticing.

No more cake!

Fun time with Uncle John

Things wound up pretty quickly after her bath, and we were able to get our pooped little party girl off to bed. Unfortunately she didn't stay there very long. She kept waking up about every hour (very unlike her) and crying, so she spent most of the night in bed with us. I'm guessing either the sudden addition of so much sugar to her diet did a number on her tummy, or that the whipped icing had more dairy in it than she could handle. But we made it, and she's happy again today, seeming no more spoiled today than she was yesterday. I guess we can put this one down in the books as a successful birthday!