While Jon was home for lunch today we finished the last of the ice cream in the house, each eating directly from the carton - orange creamsicle for Jon, cookie dough for Cortney. We'd share a picture of this event, but you'd be surprised how sticky hands, even whole arms, get that way.
life 
Raspberry can arrive any day now. How do we know? He's considered full term and healthy...and we installed the car seat bases. Yep. Any day now.
parenting Binder Park may have the seven minute train to Africa, and Toledo the two minute train to Africa (who would buy seven minute abs when there's six minutes abs...), 
but Detroit now has their own distance defying foreign trek - Australia in less than a minute! Newly opened this year is their Walkabout, a lovely trip to Australia in the time it takes you to walk through two sets of doors. What will you see in Australia? While traversing the dirt path through the rock formations and the camp setups left by previous hikers one can peruse a plethera of signs describing the animals, cultures, and peoples of that lovely country. There are also free ranging peacocks (hey, this is our own version of Australia, not Australia's), and free ranging...you guessed it! 
Kangaroos. Of course said kangaroos were definitely free, but clearly not ranging while we were there today in the ninety degree heat. What they were doing more closely resembled lounging, but we enjoyed our Australian outback adventure anyhow. Besides, Detroit has another piece of news this year - a brand new joey! This new joey came as a surprise not only to visitors to the Perth area, but also to keepers as well, seeing as that all the male kangaroos has previously undergone vasectomies, but this new little miracle occured all on its own (?) and is there for all to enjoy. 
They believe him (or her) to be about five months old and he is curiously poking his bald little face out of his mother's pouch constantly and will soon be venturing out entirely. He is pictured here with his mother - both of his arms and his chin show here, as well as the black dot which his eye being shielded by that top arm. See if you can make him out...
Zoo 
We were prepared for this. Within minutes of bringing the bassinet up out of the basement and, smartly, covering it with said romantic safari tulle, Cookie is already at her mischievous best looking for a way to get onto or into this new piece of furniture. Hah! Foiled!
Jon is on a mission. His goal? Baby proof the house. So, at his urging we have made several safety oriented purchases and are slowly redecorating our abode. 
The crib and bassinet are now draped in romantic safari style tulle (read: mosquito netting that will keep the cats out). All of our previously nondescript beige outlets are now overlaid with delicate opaque adornments (read: plastic outlet covers which will come in handy when Raspberry starts crawling). His piece de resistance, however, is definitely the elegant new palisade safeguarding the descent to his atelier (read: baby gate that he installed, power tools and all, to block the basement stairs). Yes, Jon has accepted his mission and has achieved success.
parenting