Are you doing anything for World Water Day?

Here’s my contribution: http://blog.heifer.org/2011/03/world-water-day-lets-unite-for-clean.html

I was trying to get Sadie to say, “Kiss me, I’m Irish!” this morning. Instead,
I got two kisses. <3

Now I can capture adorable moments like this:

Somebody is REALLY into birthdays these days.

Thought I was having implantation bleeding and morning sickness. Instead, it’s an early period and a stomach bug.

Oh, and a SUPER cranky toddler.

So, I’ve kind of always had a thing for penguins. I still remember the first time I saw a penguin exhibit. I was 20, and it was at the New Orleans aquarium. They’re just so darn cute. Naturally, I wat totally excited when I had the opportunity to have a special preview of the Laura P. Nichols Penguin Pointe at the Little Rock Zoo.

Penguin Pointe is fantastic, and if you’re in the Central Arkansas area, you should pop in to the Zoo this Saturday (March 5, 10am) for the Grand Opening. Or at least get on down there sometime soon.

Here are a few tidbits about Penguin Pointe:

• The exhibit is designed to allow you to you see the penguins both above ground and underwater. I thought this was awesome. When Sadie and I met up with Stephanie, Sean and Jasper at the Memphis Zoo last fall, Sadie was really into the penguins. But we weren’t able to see them swimming from an underwater perspective. This makes a huge difference.
• As of now, there are a total of 11 penguins living here in Little Rock, and they are all African blackfooted penguins. In the exhibit itself are seven males and two females (one bonded pair so far!). Two additional penguins, Laura ans Skipper, live in their own quarters so they can attend presentations, events and school visits.
• Laura and Skipper are available for educational birthday parties! Yes, please.
• All of the penguins were bred in captivity as part of the Species Survival Plan.
• The African blackfooted penguin is an endangered species, so the Little Rock Zoo is doing its part to help conserve these awesome little creatures.

Here are some way belated snow day pictures. That I stole from Carrie’s Picassa album. Thanks, Carrie!

Okay, so these actually aren’t really of snow. They’re of Sadie and me proving that we can still rock babywearing. I was super skeptical that it would work out (the last handful of times over the past year I’ve tried to get Sadie in the carrier, she’s flat-out refused), but we wanted to join friends for a walk to some other friends’ home for a cozy snow day potluck. I finally feel like I got my money out of that $80 wool poncho thing I got to wear over the carrier. Sort of.

We’re in Austin for Trevor’s birthday and the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. We’ve been enjoying ourselves, indulging in things like TV, making a mess of our room, French fries, milkshakes and general merriment. Last night, we all fell asleep before 8:00. That’s right, folks. This is what vacation dreams are made of.

Just a quick preview of the sweet new penguin exhibit opening at the Little Rock Zoo.

I’m waiting on an info sheet with more details about the penguins and the exhibit, and we’re going to be out of pocket this weekend, so this will have to hold you over.

It’s been pretty quiet around here lately.

I don’t think it’s just me, but I’ve really noticed that there’s quite the dearth of photos of me in existence these days. I’m not super crazy about being photographed, so that’s part of it. I think it’s mostly to do with always being the one holding the camera, while it’s Trevor who holds the baby. Or something like that. So the solution I’ve come up with is to do a series of self portraits for a while. That way I can remember what I looked like. I’m using the Instagram app on my iPhone, and I’ve got it linked to a new Tumblr account, which I’ve added to a page here on this blog (See that, up at the top? Portraits of the Self.). You can look at them if you want. I feel stupid smiling when I take pictures of myself, so expect to see my perma-frown for the most part.

It’s just how my face looks, yo.

In upcoming news, Sadie and I are getting to preview the Little Rock Zoo’s new South African Penguin exhibit tomorrow. We’re supposedly going to get to meet a penguin in person. Hopefully Sadie won’t be too “sceered” of the little penguin and will let me take some cute pictures. I’ll absolutely be posting about it, so tune in!