Lucky

It's easy to forget how much I value being a stay at home mom living on the coast. But yesterday, I appreciated it. We took advantage of the 80 degree weather, abandoned housework duties, ditched preschool, canceled my chiro appointment and headed to the Santa Barbara Zoo.
We all had such a nice time. Lots of animals, running around, and fun. Matea insisted that I read every single donation plaque that we came across and trust me, there are a ton of them. So our trip was filled with "In memory of _______, beloved _______. We will miss you."
When we checked out the gorillas Matea immediately said, "Hey, whey's his kitten?!". We've been reading Koko's Kitten and since all gorillas look alike to a two year old, she thought this was Koko and demanded to know where his kitten was. Once she understood that the gorilla we were looking at wasn't Koko, she had a hard time grasping the concept that not all gorillas have kittens or any kind of pet for that matter. It was very sweet and a good indicator that she actually is paying attention and retaining info. that we read.
And speaking of reading, we just discovered something new this week...audio books! I know, not really a new concept, but new to our fam. Bella has a few books with follow along cd's but doesn't really love them. Because we love the Olivia books and new Olivia tv show, I decided to look for more Oliva items at the library and stumbled across the audio book. It's fabulous. Read by that crazy Dame Edna character and almost as interesting for adults as it is for kids. I was amazed that after the first run through, both girls remembered details and Matea could easily recount the stories. Now I've requested some Ramona Quimby audio books (totally excited about this, I LOVED Ramona when I was a kid - Mom, remember my kick-ass Ramona book report that was enclosed in Ramona's face complete with black yarn hair?) and also PBS special on Koko and her kitten.