BELLA BUTTERFLY

Saturday we took Bella to the Butterfly House here in St. Louis. It's part of the parks and recreation department. We were lucky in that they are celebrating their 10 year anniversary so all through the month of September tickets were buy one get one free.


Bella had a great time but I think Mommy and Daddy enjoyed it more. You start out watching a short film on the Butterfly and the impact the Butterfly plays in supporting human life from pollinating our fruits and veggies along with many other benefits the Butterfly provides.

Here is a picture of my wife holding a butterfly on her finger while trying to take a picture of it.


Here is the next display we encountered. Oppps


Here are a series of butterflies we saw while walking the paths around the observatory. I think someone said there are over 200 species of Butterflies found in this enclosure.






Here are some cool ones of Butterflies feeding.




Here is a picture of Karen and Bella loving on each other while walking the paths.



Here is a picture of our little Butterfly.



I hope everyone has a great day!

APPLE OF MY EYE!

Well, even though I haven't been actively blogging this week doesn't mean Pinky Pie hasn't been active. I was having a really crappy day yesterday. So, when I came home Boogie was being her adorable cute self and greeted me with her Big Smile, Head Tilt way she always does. So that brightened my day by quite a bit. Then, as I was putting my coffee cup from the morning in the sink she goes, "Hi Daaaddddyyyy". I know I've posted she's said it before but yesterday was so clear, so little girl voice, that my bad day just melted away. Then! for the bonus prize Karen taught her how to say apple. Plain as day she is going, "Apppple". Funny, the one word she perfects would be the one food she hates.

So anyway, just a quick pic of boogie boo and how she is the "Apppppple" of my eye.

Everyone have a great weekend!

Park and Swim

I thought I would post a few cute pictures of the Princess. Don't have much to say except she's doing great and making me laugh more and more each day.

If you're happy and you know it clap your hands..

Ok, Boogie is back on the happy side of life. It's been a relief to us knowing that she is fever free and she is slowly getting back to being Miss Funny Girl.

I was gone Sunday so I didn't get to spend a lot of time with her. So Monday, Karen and Bella, met me for lunch. I was totally amazed at how much of a noticeable change there was in her. I know everyone must think I'm crazy but everything about her had grown and developed. Her hair looked longer. She has these tight blond curls now. She is looking like Shirley Temple. Even in one day she is learning new skills. I was blown away when Karen said, "Bella Clap Hands!" and she started clapping her hands. Yes, I know, it might seem like a simple thing but I was shocked.

Last night I was driving home, talking to Karen on my cell, and I could hear Bella belly laughing in the background. Then I hear Karen cracking up. Well, Bella was picking up blocks and toys with center holes and peeking through it. Sort of like peek-a-boo. Never have I heard a baby belly laugh like this little girl does. That is pure Joy!

So, we are enjoying our little girl back to good.

Have a great Tuesday!

Mi Chiquita es Muy Mal

This is from a draft I started on Friday. I thought it was worth posting even though it was last Friday.


I post this blog out of pure frustration of Isabella being a sick little girl. As I posted at the end of my previous blog, boogie started Monday afternoon with fever which we found progressed into Strep. She is a sick little girl. They prescribed meds for her earlier in the week but it's like the bacteria thinks it's candy. On top of that we've had a really bad experience this week with our pediatricians office. You see, Dee Gee, the normal nurse is only working on Saturdays. Everyone loved Dee Gee because she was a mom of young kids plus she was awesome. We were refered to this doctor by one of Karen's friends. Well, this week we encountered Nasty nurse. No compassion, rude to Karen, rude to me. Being first time parents we are not used to or are we aware of certian childhood illnesses. It got so bad that we were seriously considering looking for another doctor, even though we really like Dr. Deschamps. Well, just by chance Karen's friend was in the office yesterday and encountered the same rudeness from this nurse. She mentioned it to Dr. Deschamps and also threw us under the bus by saying, "and my friend Karen and her husband are thinking about leaving this office because of your nurse". Well, Karen got a phone call from Dr. Deschamps yesterday seeing how Boogie was doing and apologized for the poor treatment we received this week from the office nurse. We were impressed that the Doctor called herself and assured Karen that she would look further into this and take action.

So just keep boogie boo boo baby in your prayers. She's a trooper who even in her state of yuck is enduring.

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

Well, it was a great weekend... 99.50% of it was the bomb diggity! Some of it was planned and some of it was done on the fly.


SATURDAY:

Karen and Bella had never been to Grant's Farm. For those of you not familiar with Grant's Farm, it is a 281 acre wildlife preserve owned by the Busch Family of Anheuser Busch. It received it's name because President Ulysses S. Grant fell in love with Julia Dent, the sister of one of his fellow corpse man. Grant met Julia while visiting his friend on the Dent's family farm. Julia's family owned the property that Grant's farm currently resides on. After marrying the two returned to the Farm and built a cabin on the property. That cabin can still be seen there. (seen below)

August Busch Sr. purchased the property from Grant in 1907. As a tribute to the men who risked their lives during the Civil War, Busch had a iron fence built around the front entrance of the farm made out of Civil War Riffle Barrels. Busch built a large mansion on the property and used this farm as the family's summer home. The location of the farm is probably 30 minutes by car from the brewery downtown. The family's main residence was located next to the brewery. It would be a day's travel by horse and carriage to travel to the farm. August Busch loved that his guests enjoyed this farm so much that he opened it up to the public to see and enjoy. To this day the Busch family still uses the home for entertaining and recreation.

You enter the farm via a tram that gives you a tour of the property. Because this is a wildlife refuge you see rare cows, deer, buffalo from all over the world. After the tour the tram drops you off at a spot where you can walk around and take in a bird show, feed baby goats, and many other exotic animals. In the center of the farm is what's called the Bauernhof, built in 1913, and was the first building constructed on the Busch family estate. Bauernhof is German for "farmstead."


Located in the Bauernhof are tables to enjoy a sampling of ABs many products both Alcoholic and Non-Alcoholic. They also serve food if you choose. Also located inside the Bauernhof is Busch's prized collection of horse carriages along with stables that house many different breeds of horses, including, the world famous Clydesdales.

Bella enjoyed seeing all of the sites that Grant's Farm had to offer. Mommy and Daddy enjoyed the many sites the Bauernhof had to offer.

It was really cool afterwards because I got to take Karen and the baby to the first house I grew up in and the elementary school that I attended Kindergarten. This was only a couple miles from Grant's Farm.

SUNDAY:

Sunday we decided to get up early and go visit Grandma Dee Dee and Paw Paw Fred at their place up at Coffeen Lake in Illinois. Paw Paw has a 20 ft. Pontoon Boat so he took us out on the lake to see Eagles and Deer that sometimes can be seen around the lake. They spotted this spring an Eagle's Nest so he was hoping to show us the baby eagles. We didn't spot any near the nest but on the other end of the lake we think we saw a baby eagle perched on a tiny branch. None-the-less it was nice to be out on the water.

When we got back from our boat ride we walked down the road from their camp to this family that has a 3 acre fenced in pen where they raise white tail deer. Bella got to feed the deer crackers. I'm not sure if she was so thrilled to give up her cracker. I think she wanted to eat them.

Grandma and Paw Paw wanted us to stay for dinner but Boogie was getting tired so we opted to just go home. We had a great time!

MONDAY:

Monday we took Bella to the pool. We have several community pools in our area which we have never used in the three years we've lived in our house. Karen was worried about the baby and getting sun burned. We were very careful to keep her hat on and cover her in sunblock. She loved it! She had so much fun and we actually enjoyed ourselves too.

However, when we came home we put Bella down for a nap. Upon her waking up Karen noticed she was very warm. She took her temperature and as she suspected she had a 102 degree fever. So we gave her Baby Tylenol and watched her. Unfortunately, her temp spiked to almost 104 degrees. Needless to say we started to get concerned by yesterday morning when it was this high. Karen took into the doctor and poor boogie has strep. She's been a trooper but Mommy and Daddy have been so worried about her. She still has a temp today so we're hoping it runs it's course and she gets over it.

So as I said, the majority of our weekend was Fantastic!