The Returned Check

So remember how we went through every parent's rite of passage with our trip to the ER with Zara back in February? And remember how we didn't have insurance at the time so we had to pay for out of pocket and it was ridiculously expensive?

Okay, maybe you don't remember that part. I didn't blog about the costs associated with our trip. I thought I had. As luck would have it, we had just canceled our insurance the week before Zara's accident because we could no longer afford it and we hadn't really needed it anyway.

As soon as we had Zara's stitches removed, we asked to pay the bill right then. It came out to roughly $1500, $972 for the first ER visit to have the stitches put in and $500 for the stitches to be removed. They waived the fees for the second visit so we wrote a check for $972 and went on our way. (Thankfully we had just gotten our tax return so we had the money.)

A few weeks ago, completely out of the blue, we received a check from the hospital for the $972 we had paid them. I was positive it was some sort of mistake, so I called the hospital to figure out what was going on. It took me nearly an hour to get through to someone, but once I finally got ahold of someone in billing, she told him they were calling it an "overpayment" and that we would not be charged for our ER visit, except perhaps for a small doctor's association fee. 

I don't know why or how this happened. Call it a tender mercy, miracle, or clerical error. All I know is that I am incredibly grateful for a returned check and for the money we still so desperately need. 

Washington, D.C.

As soon as we got the news that we'd be leaving Virginia for more southern pastures, I told David that there were two things I had to do before we departed. The first was to make one last visit to Colonial Williamsburg--which we did for my birthday--and the other was to spend a few days in Washington, D.C. to visit my old haunts and catch up with old friends.

Once upon a time I did live there.The truth is, I've lived a lot of cool places: Washington, D.C., Seoul, Hawaii, Rome. But the other sad truth is that with each passing year and each new location, I forget what it was like to live in some of those places and it all begins to seem like a dream. Going back always brings back memories--both good and bad--and reawakens a new understanding of my former life. My Washington, D.C. years were fun years and an intensely transformative period of my life. I was eager to experience it just one more time while we were so close. (Not that I won't be back again, but who knows when.)

Since we only had 3 weeks from getting the job offer until David's start date, we had to make our plans rapidly. We decided to visit from Thursday, February 13th to Saturday, February 15th, which was the last weekend we'd have in Virginia. We thought of staying with friends but I didn't want to inconvenience any one too much so we ended up booking a room at the Embassy Suites near the Convention Center in downtown D.C. Since it was the off season, we got great rates and we were within walking distance to all the major spots which was pretty fun. We contacted our local friends--both David and I have friends in the area--and made plans to meet up.

I'm a happy baby......sometimes.

As luck would have it, our trip coincided with the massive winter storm Pax which threatened to ruin all our plans. Most everything had shut down on Thursday, but the storm hadn't impacted southern Virginia as much so we decided to take our chances and drive up to DC  as planned. The roads were wet and there was a little bit of snow on the drive through Newport News and Williamsburg. Once we hit Richmond, there was definitely a lot more snow but the roads were still clear. As an added benefit, there was hardly anyone on the road so we made great time.

But once we hit NOVA and especially once we got into the District, the roads were slushy and mostly unplowed. We carefully made our way to our hotel and checked in around 3pm. Though the sky was clear and bright that afternoon, another snowstorm was predicted for the evening.

We had made plans to have dinner with three of my GW friends at a trendy restaurant near Logan Circle, but one by one, each had to decline as it became clear that more snow was going to wreak havoc on the already slush-filled streets.

When in doubt, eat your finger.

Since our hotel was within walking distance of the pig, our chosen eatery, David and I decided to head there anyway regardless of the fact that all my friends had canceled. I was sad that they wouldn't be joining us, but the walk was cold and slushy (David's shoes were soaked by the time we made it to the restaurant and Zara's stroller was useless) and the snow started falling shortly after we arrived, so I had to admit that they were all pretty wise to stay home and safe that evening.

The restaurant was quiet and empty since not many other people wanted to venture out that night either. We ordered food to share including bacon-wrapped apples which were far more delicious than you'd think. But our shared food was not quite enough so we ordered a massive banana split for dessert (served with bacon brittle which Adelaide sucked on) which we ate while watching the snow fall.

After trudging back to our hotel and getting the girls to bed, David and I watched the Olympics because I am an Olympics junkie.




Friday dawned bright and clear. Most of the snow that had fallen the night before had melted and most of the museums and other attractions were opening once again. After a huge breakfast at our hotel's restaurant, we set out to see a few sights until meeting my friend Kate for lunch (to make up for the canceled dinner the night before). We were only a few blocks from the National Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum....but they didn't open until 11am. No problem. We can just go to Ford's Theater. Also closed until noon.

I didn't want to walk to the Mall since I knew we'd have limited time before we needed to meet up for lunch, so we took a scenic tour of DC as we walked from 10th Street to Foggy Bottom, stopping by the White House to snap this picture, mostly so I could prove to Zara that she'd been to DC sometime in her life.

The compositional stylings of a 3-year-old.

I also wanted to re-visit GW's campus. Not that it's a particularly attractive or impressive campus--it is in the middle of a busy city--but I wanted to see how much it had changed (a lot) and remember that yes, I used to attend this school. Sadly, I got a little turned around as we made our way to the American Studies building where I used to spend all my days. Zara desperately wanted to take tons of pictures with our camera, so we finally let her get a family shot. 

She, however, did not want to have her own photo taken. Adelaide remained unimpressed with the proceedings and requested more milk.

The building in the middle, mostly blocked by the tree, is the American Studies building where I once had all my classes. It's still just as decrepit as ever, but boy, does it bring back so many memories. If I thought any of my professors would remember me, I would have gone inside but I felt really lame.

After our GW excursion, we went to Potbelly's at 19th and Eye to meet my friend Kate for lunch. (I really wanted their chicken salad salad which wasn't as great as I remembered.) We had a great chat and after our good-byes, David and I headed to the Mall for a little museum time. Since we'd done the American History museum on our last DC visit, we hit the Natural History museum. I thought Zara would like their exhibits.

She once again insisted on taking my photo in the Hall of Mammals. not bad for a 3-year old who can barely lift the camera to her eye and push the button at the same time. We stopped at one of the museum's gift shops afterwards and I told Zara she could pick any one thing that she wanted. She, of course, wanted a bag of pretty rocks. Being the mean and heartless mother that I am, I told her no because who wants to pay for something you can find for free outside (albeit less colorful) and redirected her to a set of African animals.

I feel bad now because she did really want to pick out her own rocks, but I was afraid of her leaving them out and Adelaide trying to eat one. Adelaide, on the other, got a long, stuffed snake as her gift. I jokingly wrapped her around her in the gift shop but she loved rolling around with it and got such a kick out of it that we ended up buying it for her. David rightly pointed out that she was born in the year of the snake, so it's a fitting toy for her. (I'm trying to come up with a good snake name for it. David vetoed Salazar, which was my first inclination.)

All tuckered out with her stuffed snake after a long day.

That evening, we had dinner with my best friend Jen and her roommate Regina at their apartment in Alexandria. We haven't seen each other since my wedding 5 years ago and it was great to catch up.

On Saturday, we had breakfast at our hotel again, check out, and then drove up to Arundel Mills, to visit David's friend Alicia. Alicia is one of his Navy friends who still lives in Hawaii but was visiting the Fort for work purposes. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Their food is always surprisingly good but I can never decide what to eat because their menu is just so dang long. I need places like In & Out and Chipotle who limit your choices so you can actually make up your mind and order your food in a reasonable amount of time.

After our lunch, we packed back up and drove back to Newport News to prepare for our impending move. Though the snow put a damper on things, it was a great little mini-trip and vacation and I'm so glad we made it up there, if only for a little bit.

This Week in February

Last week was a very eventful week for the Malones. Since I don't want to forget how everything went down (it's already started to get pretty muddled in my mind), here's a run-down of our crazy week.

Monday, Feb. 3 - Zara falls down the stairs and gets a gash above her left eye. We spend some time in the ER and she gets 3 stitches.

Tuesday, Feb. 4 - Today was my nephew Ian's first birthday. Zara and I went to Target to buy him a present and then stopped at Costco for one of Zara's favorite lunches: pepperoni pizza and berry smoothie. We then enjoyed a birthday celebration in Ian's honor.

Wednesday, Feb. 5 - Realizing that his Georgia driver's license was about to expire on his birthday, David went to the Virginia DMV to get a new license while me and the girls attended an afternoon tea at the house of a friend from church. At 4:41pm, David receives an offer of employment from SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. (They sent his offer letter in an email which is why I know the exact time it came through.)

Thursday, Feb. 6 - David's birthday. David calls the HR recruiter to ask questions about the job and frets over whether to take the job or not, especially since another offer was pending. We celebrate David's birthday with minestrone soup and apple crisp with ice cream.

Friday, Feb. 7 - David is still fretting and stewing over the job in the morning and so he calls his Dad for advice. With his Dad's blessing, David sends in his acceptance. We begin our plans to move to Atlanta. (And David will just have to replace that new Virginia driver's license with a Georgia one again.) David and I go out to celebrate his new job and our birthdays. We eat dinner at Olive Garden, do a little shopping at the mall, and bring home some cupcakes. We watch a documentary together after putting the girls to bed.

Saturday, Feb. 8 - My birthday! We spend the morning in the ER once again to have Zara's stitches removed. We drive to Colonial Williamsburg for one last visit. We visit the Decorative Arts and Folk Art Museum and Bassett Hall. We eat lunch at Chipotle and do a little shopping at the Outlets.


ERs and birthdays and job offers! We won't forget this week for awhile.

David starts his new job in investment banking on the 24th so we're moving to Atlanta next week. We'll be staying with David's sister until we find a home of our own. We're very excited for this next chapter. Stay tuned for more updates.

The Emergency Room

Life is full of a million little mundane tasks, inconsequential and uneventful, but each with the potential to turn to disaster in a split second. Being a rather accident-prone person, I am well aware of the potential pitfalls of everyday life. I racked up quite a number of ER visits as a child and had my fair share of stitches (3 sets) and broken bones (2, not including toes). Since becoming a mother, I have been dreading my first ER trip with a child. I knew it was inevitable. I knew it would happen. But you still never expect it and it's still a little bit traumatizing. (Though apparently more for me than for Zara.)

On Monday afternoon, Zara and I went to the grocery store--as we often do, Zara loves to go shopping--to purchase supplies for the week's meals. We got back around 3pm. Zara went upstairs to take off her shoes, while I went into the kitchen to unload the spoils of war. Then Zara was downstairs talking about how she wanting some animal crackers (which are kept in our room upstairs). I told her to get a bowl and take it upstairs to ask Daddy for some crackers since David was in our room. My sister came into the kitchen as I continued to unload the groceries and we discussed dinner for the night and our plans for meals for the week (being that we switch off cooking and we have 3 birthdays to celebrate this week).

I heard the door close upstairs and the sound of Zara walking down the stairs. I thought nothing of it and continued my conversation until the most awful, horrible sound you can hear interrupted us--the heavily thud of something small and precious tumbling down the hardwood stairs. Cassy and I rushed to the foot of the stairs and David sprang out of our room above to find Zara sprawled in a sea of broken animal crackers, with blood gushing down her face from a cut above her eye.

Zara was still wearing her socks and carrying a plastic bowl of animal crackers when she tripped. Since none of us saw the actual event happen, we can only assume that she slipped on one of the stairs (from the length of time it took her to fall, I think she fell from the middle of the staircase) and went tumbling down. We're not sure if she cut her eye on one of the stairs or perhaps from the impact of the bowl hitting her eye as she tumbled down.

Cassy and David performed triage while I busied myself with cleaning up the animal crackers. I'm a little bit squeamish around blood. It's a wonder I've been able to have children. They checked her over and determined that the cut was the extent of her injuries but the gash was too deep to be dealt with at home. We'd have to go to the ER.

When you never need urgent care, you don't really think of what to do in case of an emergency. We don't have a doctor here--in fact, we just canceled our insurance last week because we could no longer afford it--and we weren't sure where to go or what to do. We finally decided to just got to the nearest hospital down the street and hope we could somehow find the money to pay for an ER visit out of pocket. (No bill yet so that remains to be seen.) We left Adelaide with Cassy and sped away to Riverside Hospital, with Zara laying down in the backseat, with David popping up her legs.

Thankfully, ER staffs tend to take sick and injured children very seriously, so we were able to go straight back to a room without waiting. We were first taken to a small exam room where two nurses checked over Zara and got information about the accident. They then went to consult with some doctors and prepare an actual ER room for us.

Meanwhile, we tried to keep Zara still but awake. David played her videos on his phone or we played games on the Kindle.  She was obviously growing tired and wanted to fall asleep. About 30 minutes after arriving, we were shown back to an actual ER room where the doctor finally came to see us. She examined the wound and left to get the suturing kit she'd need to stitch the brow back together.

In situations like these, it always feels like time stands still. It felt like we waited forever in between each visit of a nurse or the doctor, but it only took about an hour and a half from the time we walked into the door until we left. Shortly after the doctor left, a nurse arrived to help us prep Zara for her stitches. She cleaned the wound and applied a gel to help numb the area. We wrapped Zara up in blankets in order to keep her still.

The doctor re-appeared and gave Zara a shot of lidocaine to fully numb the eye. This was the only point at which Zara really cried out, except for when she first fell. Otherwise, she had been silent and watchful, though obviously scared and in a little bit of shock. Once the area was numb, the doctor quickly put in three stitches while the nurse, David, and I held Zara down.

We cleaned her up, applied and band-aid and were sent on our way with instructions to return on Saturday to have the stitches removed. (What a nice birthday gift!)

It could have been so much worse. I know that. We're glad it wasn't worse and that she only needed 3 stitches. Vainly, I hope it doesn't leave too much of a scar, but I'm sure it won't be the last.

An 8 Month Old's Guide to Eating a Cracker

Step One: Convince an older sibling, adult, or other innocent bystander to supply the desired cracker.

Step Two: Bang acquired cracker on nearest hard surface to determine freshness for maximum taste enjoyment.

Step Three: Guide cracker to mouth for one delectable nibble.

Step Four: It's important to be dainty and ladylike when eating to prevent getting crumbs all over your face.

Step Five: Once you come to your senses and remember that you are 8 months old, just go ahead and shove that whole thing in your face.

Step Six: Swallow. Cutely.

Step Seven: All done!

Anyone have another cracker?

Colonial Williamsburg

We currently live about 20 miles from Williamsburg and since Colonial Williamsburg is the history nerd's Disneyland, I have been dying to go. But, the price of admission is currently out of our price range, I couldn't justify a visit. Then I learned that you can actually visit the city without a ticket, you just can't go inside any of the homes or partake in many of the extra tours, demonstrations, and programs. That was fine by me, I just wanted to wander around the city and breathe in the history.

We actually visited the city briefly a few weeks ago to meet one of David's oldest friends, Renee. We ate a late lunch and then wandered around the "Revolutionary City" for about an hour. We even got to see their military review that they put on every day at 4:30. Since it was outside, we didn't need a ticket and we could to watch them shoot muskets, cannons, and march to a fife and drum band. It was pretty cool.

 That first visit (however brief it was) whet my appetite for more, so I convinced David to go back for another visit last Wednesday. We packed ourselves a little picnic lunch and strolled through the town, enjoying the old buildings and soaking in some of the history.

 

Of course, I would love to go back again sometime soon and actually pay to go into the houses. I might just go back by myself and visit the decorative arts and folk art museums (which you can pay to visit on their own for a much lower fee). 

 We still had fun with what you can do, though. You can go into all the shops (of course) and I lusted after the old soaps, candles, dolls, clothing, toys, and slateboards. And to his credit, when I told David that someday I'm going to have to buy all that stuff, he just nodded his head and said, "I know."
 

 It was a relatively chilly day (and a Wednesday), so there weren't many visitors which made for a very pleasant visit. It warmed up in the afternoon. 

 This tree was awesome and twisty.

 And of course, this is the cutest baby bear ever.

 I just love Zara's big grin in this photo.

Yup, I definitely want to go back again soon. I would seriously spend a week here, just enjoying all the tours and programs. It also reawakened my desire to go to William and Mary. Maybe some day.

A Comparison of Daughters

When Adelaide was born, David and I marveled at how similar she looked to Zara. We'd compare pictures of them as newborns and could barely tell the difference. Both had full heads of dark hair, blue eyes, and chubby cheeks slightly indented by the promise of dimples. David called them our clone babies. 

But miss Adelaide has definitely grown out of her Zara phase and is becoming her own little person. A very cute person, I might add. Unlike Zara--who's hair never fell out and just continued to grow long and dark and luxurious--Adelaide's brown locks have slowly fallen out and in bits and pieces, and is being replaced by blonde baby peach fuzz. I think her eyes are just a bit bluer and her dimples much deeper. She's remained a large baby for her age and her thighs are simply the most delicious things I've ever seen. 

At five months, Adelaide is adept at rolling over and has even started to army crawl, just this week. She loves to smile, but doesn't giggle very easily (much to David's dismay). She seems interested in food but makes the most hilarious faces of disgust when we try to feed her solid food. (So far, just a little bit of rice cereal and applesauce. We're not pushing it too much. I think I started Zara way too early and have wanted to wait until Adelaide really wants to eat it.) She thinks electronic devices and kitties are delightful and is trying to bang on my laptop as I type this. 

But the very best, most wonderful thing about Adelaide (in direct opposition to her older sister) is that she a wonderful, fabulous, super easy-to-put-to-bed sleeper. I cannot express my deep and abiding love for this child for this one thing. She takes at least two naps a day (and her afternoon nap is often 2-3 hours long) and all I have to do is feed her some milk, make sure her diaper is clean and put her in her bed and then I CAN WALK AWAY. She just sticks her thumb in her mouth and puts herself to sleep. It's the most wonderful thing in the world. If all my babies were this easier, I'd have a lot more. And by more, I mean one more. Because that's all I want. Okay, maybe two. But I'm only saying that for David's benefit. 

We love our Miss Adelaide. (And Miss Zara, of course, but she's already gotten a lot of love on this blog.) 

To compare our little girls, I pulled out some old photos of Zara to compare with some new ones I just took of Adelaide, wearing the same dress. In these photos, Zara is only 3 months old, and Adelaide is 5 months, but you can see a lot of the similarities and the differences.

Miss Adelaide at 3ish Months

Let's be honest....Adelaide is going to get the shaft when it comes to monthly blog posts about her growth, she's not going to have photographs of every day of her life (at least for the first year) like Zara, and she's certainly not going to get lots of brand news clothes when her sister's hand-me-downs will serve her just fine. Life is tough for child #2.

That does not mean, however, that Adelaide is any less adored by all of us. She is a ray of sunshine in an otherwise difficult time in our lives. I want to jot down just a few things about her at 3.5 months so I don't forget.

Nicknames

Adelaide is quite a mouthful and we often get asked if we use a nickname for her. The short answer is no. The long answer is yes, but it varies.

David feels strongly that if Adelaide wants to shorten her name to any one of the many options available to her, that is her choice but we will not chose it for her. David absolutely detests the fact that even though his name is David and he always introduces himself as such, the majority of people who meet him automatically shorten it to Dave. (I did too when we first met.) He really wants to avoid that for our children. Adelaide is her name and Adelaide is what she shall be called until she informs us otherwise.

Personally, I call her lots of things. All parents have nicknames for their children...it's just the natural order of things. Some of them play off her name and some of them have absolutely no relation to her given name at all. The two most common names I call her are Lady Adelaide of the Cheeks and Smiles. The first because she has the most awesome cheeks in the world and the second because she loves to smile and show off her dimples.

I love the name Adelaide but I also love that it has such a large number of possible nicknames available to chose from including: Addie, Ada, Adele, Della, and Laidy. My favorite of the bunch is Laidy and I secretly sometimes call her that (when no one else is around). Laidy Malone sounds very regal. (Adelaide does mean noble after all.) My least favorite is Addie and I would just a tad disappointed if that was her preferred name. But I do believe it's her choice to decide what she prefers. I did the same, when I changed my name from Amanda to Lizzie in 4th grade and again when I shortened Lizzie to Liz in 9th grade. And for the record, I have never been called Elizabeth.

Stats
Adelaide was an above-average baby at birth (in terms of weight and length) and she has continued to top the charts as she has aged. The last few times I have weighed her, she has measured between 16 and 17 pounds and about 25-26ish inches.

Disposition 
I find Adelaide to be a relatively happy and easy going baby as long as she is properly feed, diapered and burped. She smiles all the time now and we've even managed to elicit a few adorable giggles out of her. (Zara is often the most effective at making her laugh.) She is also surprisingly tolerant of her big sister and cousins' almost incessant need to touch her, poke her, or pinch her cheeks. She rarely cries without reason and often calms down quickly if soothed.

She started to spit up a lot (both in frequency and volume) around week 4-5 and all attempts to discover the root of the troubles were in vain, including my pathetic attempt to eschew dairy. I was beside myself with concern over her constant reflux and it magically seemed to resolve itself during our 4 day cross country drive from Utah to Virginia. I don't know if she really was allergic to Utah or sitting more upright in her carseat for so long helped alleviate her problems but since moving to Virginia 5 weeks ago, she has only had 2 larger-than-average spit ups. It helps to burp her and keep her upright for a little bit after feeding.

Sleep
Sleep issues are the bane of my parenting existence. Zara was the model sleeper until everything went to hell at 4 months and I live in constant terror that Adelaide will wake up one day and decide that sleeping with any sort of regularity is for sissies and putting her down to sleep will not be tolerated. So far, she's a decent sleeper. She cat naps a lot during the day and often falls asleep while nursing and will stay asleep if held. Despite my love of cuddling sleeping babies (seriously, I think the key to world peace has something to do with snuggling sleeping babies), I often have to put her down to attend to her sister or take care of other things around the house. She will occasionally stay asleep, but more often than not, she'll wake up within 15-30 minutes. Depending on what I'm doing, I will wear her in the baby carrier and she will always conk out and sleep in that as long as I keep wearing it.

I do love wearing her and letting her sleep on me, but I also fear having her develop such a need to be held that she won't sleep on her own. By 4 months, Zara would not sleep anywhere but on me for any nap and refused to sleep in a crib so we co-slept for about a year. I don't mind co-sleeping at night, but having to wear and/or hold Zara for all her naps was very hard on me after a few months. I feel a bit selfish saying it, but I force myself to put Adelaide down so that she will eventually learn how to continue to sleep on her own.

She is, however, an excellent nighttime sleeper (knock on wood) and will often fall asleep all on her own. (A skill Zara never developed until much, much later.) I'll often nurse her around 9-9:30pm, wrap her up like a little baby burrito and put her down in her pack n' play still awake. She'll inevitably wrest her arms free after a few minutes of struggling and will munch on her fingers and occasionally whimper just a little bit until she falls asleep, often within 15-20 minutes, and will stay asleep for several hours. Since Zara never did this, I find this behavior in Adelaide to be the mark of angels and worthy of endless praise and adulation. I don't care that other babies have been doing this for centuries....mine is a blessed baby. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that month 4 doesn't unleash the furies of hell like it did with Zara.

Other Observances
Adelaide hates tummy time, but has excellent head control and strong legs. She's great at standing on her own with very little support and assistance.She will often roll from her back to one side or the other. She hasn't attempted to roll from her back to her belly or vice versa. [Update: As of 9/12, Adelaide can roll from her tummy to her back.]

She has entered the oral fixation stage of life and loves to put her fingers or her blanket in her mouth. She has started to drool more (as a result of munching on more) and sometimes acts irritable like she might be teething, but I think she's still got a ways to go until then. She is also quite taken with sucking her thumb, which I have many mixed emotions about.

When she gets excited, she'll start pumping her legs and flapping her arms with a huge grin on her face.

Unless pinned down, she will not allow any blanket to continue covering her for any amount of time.

She also moves around a bunch. She is never exactly where I left her.

She's almost outgrown her 3-6 months clothes, which she has been wearing since she was 6 weeks old.

By this age, it was apparent that Zara's hair had a bit of a curl to it. Adelaide's foretells no such future and is lighter than Zara's was. I think Adelaide's might continue to lighten, so that it's a nice honey blonde or even strawberry blonde.

All in all, we love our Adelaide and couldn't imagine these last 3 months without her. Here's hoping I'll update again before another 3 months have passed. Of course, we need some obligatory pictures:

Virginia Zoo at Norfolk

Last Thursday, my sister Cassy and I took our brood of 6 kids to the Virginia Zoo at Norfolk. Since I grew up attending the San Diego Zoo (one of the best zoos in the world), I have understandably high expectations of zoos. I try to lower my expectations so I don't leave them disappointed. The Virginia Zoo was a delightful zoo. Small enough to enjoy in a day and the enclosures were nice and mostly spacious for all the animals. They had the regular cast of zoo characters and several splash pad areas for the kids to play in between exhibits. We dressed the kids in their swimsuits and took them all around the various "villages" (grouped by area of the world the animals come from) and enjoyed a very nice, surprisingly not too humid day.

This sign made me laugh.

Cute sleeping babies.