Zookeeper's Log- Ice Cream, Horses and Bugs, Oh My!

Not only has this been the week of no blog posts, but a huge week of ‘firsts’ for Miles and Ellis!

Last weekend we decided to head up to the tippy top of Mt. Olympus in the Troodos Mountains. At around 6k feet, it is the highest point on the mountain and even has a chair lift for skiing in the winter! I had never been there, and google maps said it was only one hour away so off we went. So glad we did… it was amazing! I didn’t get any pictures of the towns or the forest because I was driving and dealing with both kiddos on my own, but I will try to make it back before we leave. It reminded me a lot of the high desert forests in the Sierras. We even managed to get stuck in a thunderstorm with a downpour for 20 mins! Such an amazing relief from the heat down here on the coast.

So, onto the firsts… Miles got to have his very first ice cream cone. It was pretty amazing for all of us. He also got to ride is very first horse! If you know Miles, you’d know what a huge deal this is. He is a very timid kid. It is really difficult to get him to try new things (think swimming in the pool). Once he does it he loves it and wants to do it over and over again, but I never thought in a million years I’d actually get the kid on a horse!

The last time he saw a horse in person was almost a year ago and not surprisingly was terrified. The things are huge. We drove by the horses and donkeys and I pointed them out from the car. Miles got super excited and when I asked if he wanted to ride one practically jumped out of his seat. I figured we’d get over to them and it would take a lot of negotiating just to get him to pet one… I was so wrong. We walked up and this kid had no fear! He wanted to touch them all and within 2 minutes had picked out his favorite one that he wanted to ride.

Two euro to put your kid on the horse and take a picture, so that is what we did. I figured the second I tried to let go of him up there he’d want down… nope. Put him up there, took some pictures and what does he say? “Make him walk!” Ok, guess we’ll pay the 6 euro for the 10 minute ride! He rode the entire time all by himself. He kept saying “I’m perfect on this horse” “this is a good horse!”. I am still amazed. My baby boy is growing up! I am so proud of him!

Now on to little Miss Ellis! She is a crazy fast crawler now and has recently discovered that there are more rooms she can disappear into and there are some stairs she can try to climb. Miles was never into climbing, but this girl is all about it. I catch her on top of things seconds before she starts to topple. I can’t take my eyes off of the trouble maker. Standing is now no problem for her (still holding on to stuff). She practically tackles me when I get home from work… speed crawls to me and stands up holding on to my leg and grunts/growls until I pick her up. Yes, other than the occasional crying ‘mama’ the only things she says are the sounds her brother makes to try to make her cry (think dinosaur, lion, squeals). Ellis now thinks that is an appropriate way to communicate. Joy J With all of her crawling around we’ve officially entered the ‘blurry picture’ stage of life. She is so hard to catch!

 

She has also figured out how to ‘carry’ things with her. Miles use to do this weird one-armed crawl. Ellis just sticks things in her mouth and crawls around like a puppy. I’ll have to get a better picture, but brother’s headphones are one of her favorite chew toys/crawling companions.

She has also become a champion eater. This little girl is definitely not wasting away any time soon. Sadly she is working on cutting 6 teeth. Yes, 6 at once. Awful. She is a little trooper though… she is definitely in pain but handles it all in stride. Just fussier and at night she wakes up wanting something to chew on every 30 min until around 11ish but then sleeps longer stretches. Since I’m up that late anyways it hasn’t been too difficult.  She too, is growing up so fast! She is so big now… sad.

Finally, the bugs. Grandma, you may want to stop reading now!

It has been so hot and humid here this week that the bugs have officially moved in. It is awful. Twice this week I woke up to full on ant infestations (I’m talking hundreds). We’ve captured and released two cockroaches from the bathroom. One I saw when going in there in the morning and not knowing how to kill it his life was spared. Miles loved it (see picture). The other was living in the bath toy holder and Miles dumped it out on himself while in the tub… disgusting! I was so confused because some of his bath toys are plastic bugs, one of which is a cockroach. I am so glad I was already out of the tub! I should also add that a few weeks ago when going back to bed I saw a cockroach run from under Ellis’ door into Miles’ room. I literally stood there for 10 minutes trying to decide which room was the best option for me to sleep in… And lastly, we’ve found two monster spiders of the same species. I’m pretty confident they aren’t deadly, but they are very large and scary looking so may be pretty toxic… I hope we don’t find out. One was living in a towel on Miles’ bedroom floor. The other in Ellis’ shorts I left in the bathroom overnight. They both survived and got moved outside as well. Again, Miles loved them.

Such is life. I hope it cools down here soon! For us and to get the bugs out!

Oh! And Ellis turned 8 months old this week! I can’t believe she is getting so old so quickly! She’ll be one before we know it!