Earth Day at the Zoo!

If you've been reading this little blog of mine for any amount of time you know how much we love The Memphis Zoo! This is our second year as members so you'd think we've seen it all, but the great thing about our zoo is that there is always something different going on. Back in April we went with Nana and Papa (my momma and daddy) and had a great day celebrating Earth Day and the 20th anniversary of Cat Country! 
{KING of the Jungle!}

{We were joking that the conversation between the lioness and lion went something like this: 

Lion: Hey get me my beer!

Lioness: Oh sure leave me here trying to figure out how to open this keg while you sit there and lick your balls. 

On second thought maybe you had to be there!}

{snoozy cheetahs}

{OH HAI!}

{I cannot remember what this cat is called, but he is gorgeous! The reason it's blurry is because Cat Country is all open air and I'm focusing past some pretty heavy cable wires! Still a beautiful animal though!}

{A lot of the animals were sleepy!}

{Checking out the gorillas in Primate Pavilion!}

{Ok true story. A gorilla tried to attack my husband that day. I think this is a male silver back gorilla, and you are never supposed to look them in the eye. Well, Chris did. Mr. Gorilla got a little pissed, pulled up a huge hunk of grass, weeds and roots and hurled them across the moat at Chris. It was hilarious. Then Mr. Gorilla gave Chris a look like, "Come at me bro. Come. At. Me."}

{I love the look on this Orangutan's face! They are always so chill!!}

 {Our favorite giraffe Marilyn & her new baby Maliki! This was the first time I got to see Maliki!}

{Pretty Flowers on the Teton Trek!}

 {There was a Grizz game that night and Chris insisted that Evie go in her jersey. It was cold in the am so we put a long sleeved shirt on underneath it. Then it got hot so we took it off. So yes, my daughter is wearing a jersey with nothing underneath & drinking a cherry icee (always a treat at the zoo). Redneck Baby Look: COMPLETE!} 

{African Elephants}

{Gorgeous hydrangea in the China exhibit}

{Komodo Dragon trying to eat my face. Evie thought they were dinosaurs and kept roaring at them!}

{Grizz Pride Baby! Believe Memphis!}

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This Weekend!

This weekend Chris and I are heading up I-40 to Little Rock, AR for the Jason Aldean concert! We decided to make kind of a weekend out of it and are driving up tonight and spending tomorrow poking around Little Rock. 

I am so freakin' excited, y'all. I need this. We need this: a weekend to just be us again, not harried, hurried and oftentimes frustrated mom and dad. So we dropped the dogs off at the kennel today and tonight we'll drop Evie off with the grandparents. 

I can't wait! Just think, two whole days of eating my meals while they're still hot and not worrying about if the sippy cup is still full or cutting up someone else's food before even glancing at my own. I've been promised breakfast in bed from room service (yes!) after I sleep in until I'm ready to get up. I get to drink my coffee without a toddler demanding "Watch Thomas Train, Momma!", dogs barking or a cat crawling all over me. There's an IMAX movie theatre and we may just go crazy and see a matinee of Iron Man 3 and pig out on popcorn and candy! I can't remember the last time we went and saw a movie. It was probably in November? I want a steak dinner at a restaurant that doesn't have a kid's menu;  I'd like a martini (maybe two) to go with it. Then I want to go to an awesome concert to see one of our favorite artists! Hopefully at the end of it all we'll get to catch up with some close friends who we don't see nearly enough. 

So this weekend we're kissing the terrible twos good bye and heading out town to remember how life was when we were just two crazy kids in love! 

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Pretty in Pink

Tough as Nails. 
In the two years I've been a girl mom I've heard A LOT about being a girl mom. 
Don't let her play with princesses, barbies or dolls too much. Don't pander to the male-centric misogynistic cultural view of little girls. Make sure you don't tell her she's pretty, but instead tell her about books. 
Treat her like a princess. Dress her up in tutus and tiaras. Tell her how beautiful she is day in and day out. Help build her self-esteem by buying into a pretty obsessed culture. 
I have a big problem with that dichotomy though. It assumes that you can only raise two kinds of little girls: 
1) Tomboys who are tough, self aware feminists who likely don't shave their armpits and will need to find a submissive male to marry.
2) Self-obsessed vapid beauty queens with standards as limp as their brains who will likely go to college searching for an MRS degree and a man to take care of her. 
What about the little girl in the middle though? What about the mother in the middle? 
The little girl who loves dinosaurs, Thomas the Train, being outside and climbing as much as she loves bows, tutus, dresses and pretty shoes. 
The mom who refuses to let her daughter wear anything with princess written on it, encourages a budding love of science but buys bows in bulk and has no problem dressing her daughter in head to toe pink. 
That's the kind of girl I'm raising. One who demands a "pwetty bow please momma!" every single morning, but is happy as a clam playing in the dirt. One who loves to wear sparkly shoes but has banged her nose twice, scraped her knees and bumped her head countless time in the past week all in the process of adventuring and exploring. One who loves to put on her "makeup" but can already count to ten, sing her ABCs, knows her colors and loves nothing more than engineering a beautiful skyscraper out of blocks. I'm raising that kind of girl who will hopefully grow into that kind of woman. One who is confident in her body her looks, who is self aware enough that with femininity comes a certain power, but knows not to abuse that power by placing to much importance on it both when dealing with herself and other people. One who isn't afraid to get messy outside or in the kitchen. One who understands the difference between beauty on the inside and beauty on the outside. One who even though she might look soft and delicate on the outside is known for her inner strength, her courage of conviction and beautiful heart. 
I hope she'll be the kind of woman my momma is, the kind of woman I still struggle to be, the kind of woman who inspired the phrase, 

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