Louisiana Purchase Gardens & Zoo

Today after we had taken our after church naps we headed over to the little zoo here in Monroe. It was extremely cheap and in a not so awesome looking neighborhood so we weren't certain how great it would be. But it was wonderful! I didn't take a ton of pictures because Ev was tired and hot, and I was too into the animals :)

 This second attempt cracks me up...^^^

The gibbons and monkeys were our favorites. They were really the only ones that interacted with us. They were so close that when Chris held his hat out, one of the monkeys grabbed it! So goofy. It was a little hot, but still so pretty to walk around in such a green setting.

Little Everettus

Chris has been calling our darling son "Everettus", it's goofy... but quite catchy. When I was in Arizona last month I took Ev in for his check up. Usually he would have had one at 2 months and one at 4 months, but I was home for neither of those. He was 3 1/2 months when we went in. His measurements were as follows:
Weight- 13lbs (25th percentile)
Length- 25in (85th percentile)
Head- I don't remember but it was the 35th percentile!
Here he is!

He will be 5 months old in about a week. He loves all kinds of baby food and rice/oatmeal cereal. We also bought him a little mesh holder with a plastic handle that can hold other fruits or ice. He loves bananas, mangos, kiwis, strawberries and just about anything else we put in there. He has become very goofy, making tons of noise and trying to do some weird blowing noise with his mouth and tongue. He can roll all over the place, he has started to try really hard to get him grippy toes to push off the ground and scoot.. so far he can only go in circles though! He absolutely loves to watch Yo Gabba Gabba on the iPad (he is definitely his fathers son), and he will stare intensely at any screen... even if it's off. I try to take him swimming a few times a week. He splashes like a nut and has a blast watching the water. He tries way too hard to stay awake lately. I begin to go a little nuts and have given into rocking him to sleep. We think he is teething, which explains some of his craziness, but it makes it pain during the day when he refuses to nap. Not only is he aching from his teeth but he is also tired beyond reason. He still likes to be swaddled really tightly, then I rock him and sing "Give said the little stream". I've tried other songs, that's the only one that works 100% of the time! We love this goofy man of ours and feel very blessed to be his parents! I have a ton of pictures I'd like to upload from my phone so hopefully there will be another Ev update soon!

The Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge

So since we are in a place with so many pretty things to see Chris and I have decided to use Sundays as exploring days. Last Sunday we visited the Black Bayou Refuge. There was a little visitors center that had the animals/reptiles/fish that were indigenous to the area. The two baby alligators were my favorite. I didn't want to leave them. After the visitors center we walked a nature trail. We saw the bayou, some weird oranges, LOTS and LOTS of insects, and so much green! It was kinda muggy so we didn't stay long. It was very fun though. We love the green and all the fun new animals here that we can't see at home. Here are some pictures :)

Gators and Friends

Since we arrived in Louisiana about 2 months ago I have been dying to go to Gators and Friends. It is an exotic petting zoo but there are tons of alligators. Today we finally went!!!! We walked around feeding and petting the animals. Zebras, deer, camels, goats, kangaroos, wallabies, alpacas, and some other weird things. A few of the deer licked Everett's feet:) Then we watched the big alligators get fed. It was kind of lame, just looked like a big bucket of dog food that the worker dumped in. The gators jumped out of the water a little, kinda crazy. Finally we got to the part I have been waiting for. We got to hold a baby gator! For free :) We waited in line and tried to figure out how we wanted to do it. I suggested we take Everett up with us and have the worker take a picture of us all together. Chris rejected that idea because obviously gators have diseases and Ev is just way too young. So we each took an individual picture with the gator and one together. It was so much fun and I am so so glad we got to do it before we leave Shreveport.