Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge

Last month we decided to take Harlan to the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Spring. It is a habitat for large a cats and some bears. It was a really neat experience and Harlan really enjoyed seeing all the animals. Surprisingly, I have lived in NWA my whole life and never been to this place.

We saw jaguars, mountain lions, tigers, ligers, lions, tigons and a grizzle bear. Some of them were really close up which was great for Harlan because he was able to see those better. We even got to see them feed eggs to some of the lose up cats.

It was a bit chilly so we didn't get to stay as long as we wanted but I have a feeling we will be going back when Harlan gets a little bit older.

10 Months

Baby Boy is 10 Months old now! He weighs around 20 pounds and continues to make us laugh every day.

He wears size 3 diapers and size 9-12 month clothes. Still only has 2 teeth but loves to chomp down on anything that goes in his mouth.

We have started giving him more "big people" food as compared to mushed stuff. He will eat strawberries, peas and carrots, scrambled eggs and he loves pancakes and waffles. I still make his pureed veggies too.

He has become a little more hesitant of big crowds and different people. If we go somewhere that has a lot of people, it takes him a few minutes to leave our arms but he eventually does. There has been occasions that somebody grabbed him and he wanted nothing to do with it. And who does he reach for, his Daddy. That hurt my ego a little but I got over it :)

Crawling and pulling up have been mastered and he can walk a few steps if he holds on to his walking toy but that has only happened a few times.

A new thing he started this month was growling at us. If he is concentrating on something or is mad at us, he will growl like a little goblin. It is really funny.

Sleeping has been great (knock on wood). I will nurse him for about 5 minutes then just lay him in his crib and he will usually fall asleep within a few minutes. He goes down around 7 p.m. and I usually have to wake him up around 7:20 to get ready for school. During the days he is at daycare he takes naps that are only 30-45 minutes long but when he is home, his naps are usually 2 hours long.

Now that I have started working from home on Fridays, we have gotten in a pretty good routine for that day:

• I let him sleep for as long as he can but he usually wakes up between 7:45 and 8
• Nurse right when he wakes up
• Eat breakfast around 8:30
• Play for about an hour
• Nap from 9:30-11/11:30
• Lunch between 11:30 and 12
• Play
• Nap from 1:30-3:30
• Nurse around 3:30
• play and snack
• Dinner around 6 with bath immediately following
• Nurse
• Asleep by 7

This month we went on our first road trip to visit our friend Tate,

 had our first Easter Egg hunt

and visited the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge.

 It was a fun month and we are treasuring every day until he turns 1. I don't want that day to come!