Facelift

No, you're not cross-eyed. Yes, this page looks different.  Happy Anniversary, Blog! It's been almost a full year since Behr Trax was conceived, so I thought it was time for a make-over.  A new wardrobe, if you will.  Dust it off.  Brighten it up.  I'm not an expert at this kind of thing, so please bear with me.  I'm still trying to figure out what you see versus what I see when I log on, so things could change without me knowing.  Hee hee.  Hope you like it!

A visit from Auntie Laurie

It's a rainy, cool Sunday afternoon.  David's sister, Laura, has been visiting for the weekend.  We've had a fun-filled last few days.  Now, Max is taking a nap and since David and Laura went out to grab some soup for our lunch, I'm enjoying some quiet time at home.  As our weekend visit is wrapping up, I thought I'd sit down and share some of our activities together. 
On Friday, we took Laura to the Henry Doorly Zoo.  As I've mentioned before, this zoo has some really great attractions.  We spent several hours exploring the new aquarium and the jungle exhibits.  The jungle is huge and features several jungle regions, such as Asia, Africa and South America.  It's like walking the jungle forest.  There is a little trail you can take on the lower level to get up close and personal with several types of animals.  The upper level has a walk-way along the outside putting you right underneath the canopy of the rainforest.  You actually get rained on!  Hippos, tapir, monkeys, birds, fish, turtles, porcupine, snakes, toads, and even bats.  I had to skip the bat section and walk all the way back around to the entrance the wrong way because I have a terrible fear of bats.  Ugh, gross! Here are a few pictures from our day at the zoo:

David and the penquins

Max loved watching the fish swim overhead

Aunt Laurie on the rope bridge

Cute monkeys

those nasty bats

Max laughing at Aunt Laurie

Here's a sloth hanging in the tree

We visited Amato's for brunch yesterday, which is a little diner that was highlighted on the show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives with Guy Fieri.  The ricotta blueberry pancakes were amazing!  The Food Network and the Travel Channel are our go-to resources when we move to a new city.  You have to check out the local secrets, right?!  Also featured from Omaha is Jones Bros Cupcakes on Cupcake Wars.  We visited the shop on Saturday as well and talked to Bill, the owner, for about 30 minutes.  Pretty cool that I flipped to the show on Food Network today and watched his team win the cupcake war! So obviously they have great cupcakes AND you can log onto Facebook on Fridays, get the secret, and if you're one of the first 92 people in the door with said secret, you get a free cupcake.  Uhhh, dangerous much?  I digress.

Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes and Italian breakfast sausage

Max saying,"Whatsamadda fa you?" in his best Italian accent

Strawberry & Cream Cupcake of the Day

My boys at Jones Bros

Yummmm, cupcakes!

After our brunch, we ventured downtown to Old Market.  It's a very hip tourist attraction and very busy on weekends.  Cobblestone streets, lofts, restaurants, shops.  We fell upon a Pub Crawl in progress.  So, as the Crawlers got more rowdy, we headed back towards home.  Not really an environment conducive to shopping with a baby.  Max was a real trooper though, so we decided to treat Laura to a belated birthday dinner at Mahogany's Steak House.  Wow!  Yummy!  You can't go to Omaha without enjoying a steak, right?

Sculpture in Old Market

Max in the Bjorn with Daddy

I've decided that after this visit, I probably don't need to eat for several days. 
 

It's how I roll

Max and I hit The Bookworm last week for his first Story Time.  The Bookworm is a cute little book store about 1/2 mile down the street.  It's got little nooks for reading, jars with animal crackers for the kids, a coffee shop attached, and it's locally owned.  I think this activity actually works out well for the both of us.  I hate to admit it, but I had been looking forward to Story Time for almost a full week.  I needed to get out of the house.  And Max, well, he might be too young to understand the stories, but he really enjoyed looking at and listening to all the other kids sitting in the group.
I also got my first dose of "mean moms" at Story Time.  Again, I have to say thank you to my friend Sarah for introducing me to this concept before it actually happened so I didn't take it personally.  For those of you who haven't experienced this, it's a continuation of girl cattiness from your middle school and high school days.  It's cliques and snobbery and mean looks that come with moms sizing each other up.  Self-doubt, no doubt.  It even occurs at Story Time, folks.  Whatever.  It's not going to scare me away from going back this week though.  Who doesn't want to enjoy Story Time?!  Seriously.  Still, I need to find a group to hang out with to get us both out of the house and interacting with others once in a while. 
Speaking of being home-bound, Omaha (and much of the country's mid-section) had some pretty crazy weather that kept us inside most of the weekend.  Fortunately, we didn't need to use the bags of food I prepared in case we had to spend the day in the basement.  No tornadoes, only severe thunder storms and high winds.  But, staying indoors all weekend added to my stir-craziness.  I actually ran to the post office twice today just to see the outside of the house. 

Max impressed us when he rolled over onto his tummy last week.  I think he surprised himself too!  He had been practicing for a few days and then all of a sudden, he was over.  He moved so quickly that I barely caught it on camera.  Now he seems to be over the idea.  He hasn't done it again since.  Oh well.

We convinced David to take a 1/2 day off last Friday so we could check out Omaha's zoo.  The zoo here is huge and has drive-through safari, a brand new aquarium, and a desert dome in addition to all your favorites.  We got a membership pass knowing that it would require several visits for us to see the whole thing, especially with Max's routine.  We made it through the gorillas, monkeys, bears, lions and tigers on our first trip.  I'm looking forward to seeing the aquarium once the crowds die down.    

Here are a smattering of pictures from last week:

Enjoying the zoo!

Tummy time

Max with his friend Cow-leen

Firsts

Update long overdue! Between the packing for the move from San Antonio and our trip to Wisconsin (with zero internet service while we were there), I've been tardy in blogging.  But we're finally here in Omaha and feeling more settled now that we're (mostly) unpacked. 

We moved into a really cute neighborhood in Omaha called Loveland, and are living in a 50's-style ranch house with a pool in the backyard.  The landlords have been really great and loaned us furniture to use while we're staying here, but the previous tenant moved out on bad terms and there was a lot of cleaning to do again.  Nonetheless, it's a great house and we really love it here.  Perfect neighborhood for walking - lots of hills and decent sidewalks - and the weather has been absolutely beautiful!  All the trees are in bloom and temps have been in the 80s already!  But, the potholes are humongous!  If I haven't said it before, it's a good thing we have the BOB.  Thanks, Grammy, Opa, and Aunt Laura for Max's favorite mode of transport!  We NEED the shocks and suspension of our BOB to protect the little guy's brain from rattling in his head during our excursions.  I've never seen roads quite like this before.  Let me amend that by saying, at least not in the city.

Max celebrated several firsts recently and we wanted to share them with you.


1st St Paddy's Day!
He doesn't look too keen on the idea of striped pants here, but he sure got a lot of smiles from people that day.  This outfit was in honor of the Irish blood on David's side and sent to us by Aunt Laura.  Aunt Laura always sends the cutest stuff!

1st plane ride! 
Max and I flew from San Antonio to Milwaukee to spend a week visiting with family and friends.  So actually, that's 2 firsts.  First flight and first trip to Wisconsin.  Lucky boy!  Max was truly a rock star with the travel.  I was a little nervous about how I was going to do, but he did great.  I just took the Baby Bjorn and a diaper bag and then checked a suitcase and his pack 'n play.  There was a tense moment before boarding our first flight when he was way over tired.  I'm sure people were hoping we weren't on their flight.  I could have used an extra set of hands at that point.  But once I got him to sleep, I enlisted the help of a man in his Air Force uniform (safe person, right?) to hold sleeping Max so I could get all our gear together.  It'll be a lot easier when David flies with us to WI in July.  Well, at least I hope so.   Here is Max snoozing on the plane.  He was the only baby/small tot who didn't cry during the flight!

Max got to meet his uncles and aunts, including his Great Great Aunty Jo, and his cousins.  It was really hard to spend a whole week away from Daddy.  Max missed his Daddy terribly!  But, he did enjoy his stay at cousin Canaan's house, a giggle session with Aunty Jo, making faces with his uncles, taking Nana out to lunch, and his first fish fry with Uncle Marker's family.  Here are some pictures from the trip:

Max and his cousin Canaan playing with Uncle Dominic

First play mat experience.  What is this Mommy?

Matching Super Baby outfits with Canaan

Reunion with Daddy after a week away - so cute!

We're also excited to announce Max's first night in his own room and first full night's sleep! 
Yahoo!  They didn't coincide on the same night, but very close.  Somehow I don't get a full night's sleep when he's sleeping... I keep getting up at the previously determined intervals to wonder why it's so quiet.  One of those ironies of motherhood I guess.   Here is a picture of Max's new room:

And finally, first Opening Day!  Opening Day AND 3 months old - this calls for a celebration!

Newest Brew Crew recruits

Go Brewers!  Happy Birthday Uncle Dominic!  And Happy 3-month-milestone Max!