Snakes, Goose-Eggs, & Spider Bites...Oh My!!

Last week, the boys and I took the long drive to The Nature Center at Pioneers Park. If we had gone the day before, the weather would have been beautiful! Unfortunately, it was pretty overcast and a bit chilly. And naturally, the actual building where the "official" nature center is located was closed. There's another building where the gift-shop and pre-school is housed, and they also have a few caged animals on display, so that's where we went. And Nolan was sooo excited because he got to pet a snake! Last time I took the boys here I didn't have my camera and Nolan got to pet two huge bull snakes, one of which turned around and stuck it's tongue right in Nolan's face...his expression was priceless!! I was very glad I had my camera this time. And, as I'm sure you'll agree when you see the photos, the man who got out the snake for us just looks like he should be wearing a snake around his neck! He was instructing Nolan that if he wanted to pet the snake he needed to use 2 fingers. Nolan was being a little stinker and was teasing him. He kept saying, "One finger!" And held up just one finger at the guy. The man replied, "Well, he likes two fingers, so please use two fingers." And again, Nolan would hold up just the one finger and say, "One finger!" The guy again requested that he use 2 fingers, but ultimately I think he just gave up. Nolan wasn't squeezing the snake or abusing it, so I think he just thought, "What the hell...use one finger if you want!" It was pretty funny.

We also had a picnic lunch at Pioneers Park. The boys played on the playground before we sat down to eat, and poor Nolan fell on the playground bridge and absolutely bit it! He was screaming in pain so I ran to swoop him up and he just buried his head in my shoulder. I kept trying to get a look at his head, but he didn't want to lift it. When I finally got a good look, I had to gasp. He had such a large, raised goose-egg next to his eye and it was already purple and red. I had an ice-pack from the picnic lunch so I put that on his eye, but he didn't want it on there very long. He cried for the next several minutes, but then he was acting fine again and even wanted to go back and play. That's been a week ago, and it's still pretty bruised and blue-ish/yellow-ish. Poor little guy.

The rest of the photos are just random pictures taken throughout the week. We went back to the Children's Museum, played outside a lot, and mostly hung out around the house. The boys (Carson especially) are really getting into riding their trikes up and down the sidewalk. It's so exciting for me because that finally gives us something to do in the front yard! The video is a pretty lengthy one, and towards the end the sound quality gets really bad, but it's super cute footage of the boys playing together at their water table. As you can see, Carson is always making sure his "Bubba" has a duck. They do lots of laughing and that's just about the cutest sound in the world! Carson is like that with his brother...He's always making sure Nolan has his drink, toothbrush, toy, whatever, and he'll either give it to him himself, or he'll follow Noah and I around to make sure we deliver things to him. We joke that he is Nolan's little delivery confirmation person. And sometimes Nolan will get frustrated because Carson will insist that he take certain things even when Nolan isn't very interested. Nolan will nicely reply, "I don't want it right now." But Carson will keep insisting, "Here Bubba!" And you call tell Nolan's patience is wearing thin as he'll again say, "I don't want it right now, Carson!" And then finally, after the third "Here Bubba," Nolan will yell, "I DON'T WANT IT RIGHT NOW!!!" It's pretty amusing.

Noah also wanted to make sure I include Nolan's little sayings. He's been saying these things for several, several months now, but I don't think I've recorded them yet. Anyway, when he gets in a goofy mood or wants to act really silly and make people laugh, he will 99% of the time say, "Toe-er and Poe-er!" We have absolutely no idea how that started or what it means, but he sure thinks it's funny! And another one that he says is "Teeny wants an acre!" Again, no clue what that means or where he picked it up. It's still pretty funny and gets us laughing. And Carson, just this week, has been telling me and Noah that he loves us! So cute!! :) And the sweetest thing is, I think he knows what that means. Before naptime or bedtime when I rock him I will say, "I love you, Carsie." And he looks at me with this adorable smile and says, "I wove you too, Mommy." I could just squeeze him...(And do occasionally!).

And just FYI... About 3 weeks ago I noticed a strange, raised marking on my inner right arm. It literally appeared out of nowhere, so it struck me as extremely strange. It was reddish/pinkish and there were two distinct "fang" marks (it kinda looked like a sideways 8). Anyway, I let it go, let it go, let it go. About a week after I noticed it, I felt a little stinging sensation on the area and a few sharp pains sent up my arm. After those few days, again it went back to where I felt nothing, but it was just there. Such an ugly looking thing. Finally, I decided to just get it checked out. Sure enough, my doctor felt pretty confident that it was a spider bite. And the really creepy part is that she thinks it was from a very large wolf spider - those hairy things!! We were both just shivering in the examine room when we thought about something that disgusting, and of that size, crawling on my arm. GROSS! She said it may leave a scar on my arm, but I could probably help it decrease in appearance by applying Vit E oil and a warm washcloth on it. I told her, as ugly as it is, I don't think I'll really do anything because my boys (Mr. Nolan in particular) think this is pretty awesome that their mom was bit by a spider. Nolan is always asking to see my spider bite so I might just take one for the team on this! :)

Just arriving at The Nature Center.

Nolan peering through the log tunnel.

Enjoying the great outdoors!

Little Explorer.

"Now this is fun!"

C.U.T.E.

Innocent little Nolan. I love this!

Building a wooden fort.

Adding more logs to the ceiling.

Can't wait to get his hands on that snake...

"One Finger!"

Chasing each other around the tree.

Carson and his friend, Savannah.

Such a tough guy...

Carson scooting down the bridge where Nolan fell. Nolan was walking and fell onto the side, so I definitely think scooting is much safer!

Picnic lunch...with real glass dinner plates. Trashy, but I didn't have disposable ones at home!!

Ouch!

Mmm...Mmmm...Mmmmm!

"Hey, Bubba! Get outta here!"

"Alright, you can come up here."

Eating cake at Great-Grandma Laverna's 90th birthday party!

Sitting with Great-Grandma.

Waiting to swing.

Nolan is a genius. Gave him a 6-inch tortilla and he shaves it down to this. He then says, "Look at my reindeer!"

Holding his masterpiece.

ATTENTION: The following pictures are extremely adorable!

If I do say so myself, these kids are CUTE!

Driving an airplane with Savannah.

"When is it going to be nice again? I wanna go outside."

In my clothes! Nolan calls that shirt my "Ruby shirt." For some reason, he thinks it looks like Ruby's clothes in the "Max & Ruby" show on Nickelodeon. He'll say, "Mom! You're wearing your Ruby shirt!"

How I will sometimes find Nolan. Haha!

And away he goes!