Dr. Lauren N. Parsons, M.D.

(Note: More on the zoo, the Brewers game, graduation, and family will be posted after we get a little further settled. Thanks for your patience :))

Senior Week Zoo Trip

As a 4th year medical student we're still called "seniors," and we have "Senior Week Activities" including a dinner/dance, a Brewers game, a golf tournament, and a zoo trip. Today was zoo trip day, complete with free parking and a picnic! What a blast! We were lucky enough to get there before the big crowds, and got to see lots of really neat animals up close. I'll try to let the pictures tell the story.
Our first animals today, the gazelles. Jake was very exited to see them, but he thought they looked more like deer.

Here is the cheetah - told you we were right up close!

We got to witness the mommy and daddy lions cuddling with each other.
The tiger came right up to the glass when we were outside. Jake was super excited (and so were Mom and Dad)!
Next we found the giraffes. Jake was impressed, but he was even more excited about...
Hippos! Last time they were in the water when we visited, so it was exciting to see them in all their hugeness. We also asked them if hippos have Bee-bo's (it's a Sandra Boynton book ;)).
Jake saved his strength and rode in the stroller between the animals. Dad was kind enough to push.
Here are Jake and Mommy outside the elephant's resting area. Boy was he excited to see the elephant (and no, we are not referring to Mommy ;))
Next we moved on to Daddy's favorite - the primate house! Here's a gorilla hanging out inside.
Here are a mommy and baby monkey (bonobos, maybe?). Hard to see in the picture because of the flash, but it was pretty cute.
Here's the orangutan. Daddy says he looks like Chewbacca.
Then it was Daddy's favorites of the favorite: Spider monkeys! One of these guys chucked a pail at the other one, then dive-bombed down the steps, and got up and shook it off. It was crazy!

Next, we traveled onward to one of Jake's favorite places...
The fish and reptile house! Here's Jake getting pretty excited over a big shark!
Then we saw some alligators - ask Jake what they say (the answer is "snap, snap" while he makes a pretend mouth with his hand).
Here's a giant sea turtle.
And a kind of cool shot of Jake (that's his outline) being mesmerized by all the fishies in the tank. There are orange ones and white ones and blue ones, and spotted ones and striped ones.. he loved it!

Well, it's getting late (and blogger takes a long time to upload pictures) so we'll continue the story of the zoo trip tomorrow. Get excited for some animals with trunks and a mode of transportation that goes "Choo choo!"

Quick Stories

A couple of quick stories from the last week:

-When Jake wakes up in the morning, one of the things I do is ask him how he slept. Lately, he's taken to answering "Pitty good."

-Jake has a stuffed baseball and baseball bat that he likes to play with. However, he uses them like a golf ball and golf club. Genetic link to my father.

-Jake has a small toy puppy on a string that he takes for walks. The other day he said "OH NO! Doggie poo-poo!" Then he picked up the puppy, laid it on its back, and grabbed some wipes out of the diaper wipes container. He then proceeded to "clean up" the doggie's "bum" for the next 15 minutes.

Big Backyard and Other Adventures

Today, April 30th, brings many changes for us. First, Ryan has his LAST final exam tomorrow for the 2L year, so this signifies the last night (at least for a good while) that we won't all get to have dinner together at home and do the bedtime ritual together! We're all excited to have Daddy back (not that he was gone per-say, but you know). It also is the last day of my vacation month, which is both sad and happy. I've really loved having these days with Jake - what a blessing. Plus I feel like I could use another vacation month to get ready for moving. However, with the end of vacation comes the last rotation of medical school EVER (barring something awful happening). And with the end of this final rotation (and it's a not too demanding one at that), graduation arrives. I hate to sound melodramatic, but I've been waiting and working for May 15th 2009 for pretty much as long as I can remember. Holy cow.

Today, Jake and I visited the Big Backyard in New Berlin. It was kind of a yucky day, so not a good one for the park. Big Backyard is like an indoor park complete with play structures, but it's nice for little kids because there are houses to play in, trikes to ride, balls to play with, and Jake's favorite - the Cozy Coupe (that red and yellow retro car that you drive with your feet, Flintstones-style). Jake was not a fan of sharing it with the other boy his age, but got better the longer we were there. He did a very good job of sharing the houses with his 18 month old houseguest, however. He had an absolute blast, and was not happy to leave, but was a trooper. Something tells me we'll be back there soon.

Pajama Party

Ryan was at the library late again last night, and Jake woke up late in the morning and again from his nap, so I decided to try having a pajama party movie night with the two of us. We got the movie "Finding Nemo" since he loves fish so much. After dinner we (well he) took a bath, and we put on our jammies, and made some popcorn. Mom bought Raisinettes and Junior Mints at the store too, so we had quite the feast! Jake made it through about a half hour of the movie, maybe a little more. He loved the popcorn and the candy, and as you can see he also thoroughly enjoyed wearing Mom's pink slippers. Jake also spent a good portion of the movie asking "Eemo, uh are youuuuu?" which means "Nemo, where are you?" It was a good time, and I think we're both looking forward to doing it again soon :)

Two in One Day!

Now for my second quick update. Today is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous - 81 in SE Wisconsin! I'm very excited to have busted out short sleeves and shorts for Jake for our afternoon in the park (don't worry Grandmas - I'll bring a pair of pants and a sweater just in case). This morning, we woke up to discover about 7 ants crawling around a small table near our sliding glass door. Now, anyone who knows me knows that ALL insects terrify me, regardless of size or actual ability to cause harm. So needless to say we spent a good portion of the morning cleaning, vacuuming, dusting, and spraying. I found maybe 5 more crawling around in the sliding door area, but none since then. Let's hope it stays that way. YUCK.

For snack today, I let Jake try some Fruit Loops and we made a necklace from the cereal too. He was pretty excited, and also excited about letting the dog try the necklace (I said "No way kiddo,") and he was excited about letting Elmo try the necklace on.







And finally, after much deliberation we (well, I guess mainly I under the veto powers of my husband - wait, does that make me Congress?) anyway, a name for baby boy #2 has been decided upon...

Benjamin Joseph Parsons

(For nicknames we like "Ben" "Baby Ben" or "BJ." No offense to the "Benny" 's out there, but I'm not a fan of that one and don't anticipate using it.)

So that's all for now. I'd better shower before the Jakester wakes up. Have a good weekend!

Please note that this is less than one week after a haircut