I can’t believe it took us this long to hit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, but we finally went this morning. Joy and Rod (Dominic’s slaves) have a family membership, so Maya and I joined Rod and Dominic for a bit o’ wandering around on the hillside this morning.

As you can see, Maya wasn’t quite sure what to make of the giraffes at first. They’re *hungry* in the morning.

Dominic was a bit more comfortable with the giraffes, as the old hand on this trip — he loved petting the girraffes’ noses (when they let him).

Buzzards and other carrion birds also live in the girraffe area. I love the way their dinner is presented inside a zebra carcas for a little touch of reality. Unless you look closely, you don’t notice the tin pie plate of meat inside the statue.

Maya chatted up one of the gorrilla matriarchs.

This female recently gave birth to a baby who’s just being introduced to the family. I feel your pain, honey.

Mossaic covering a full wall as you leave the hippopatomus area (dear God, they’re big). Cool, no?

I took a gazillion photos, and have lost the energy to blog all of it (grin)…so take a look at all of them here.

Otherwise, here’s a sampling:

Scott and Maya enjoy one last game of Oobi’s flower game before Scott and Lizann head back to Arizona.

We finally met another mama/baby pair from the September Mommies Group! Not only that, but Jessica and Maya share a birthday; Jessica is a mere 7 hours older than my peanut.

A full series of photos is here (slideshow).

Here are a couple highlights:

Learning new tricks.

…
Maya taught Jessica to climb stairs (which she just figured out herself on Friday). Jessica taught Maya how to drink from a bottle.

The girls shared the wonder-basket of toys dragged over from my house to Melanie’s (killer) loft downtown.

The girls sat side-by-side (both facing forward) for our second day of viewing new homes (Amy’s considering moving here, yay!)… On the bright side, Maya hated facing forward — this is good, since she’s only 15 pounds and will remain backwards for the indefinite future in my car. On the down side, this means she yelled for much of the drive to the far-reaches of suburbia on Saturday.

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Jessica LOVES to ham for the camera.

There are more, of course. A good time was had by all, or at least until I turned a lovely shade of green at lunch Sunday (what the *&#@ did I eat?). I’m looking forward to Amy talking her dh into the move (not like it’ll take much) so we can have Maya’s birthday buddy nearby.

Wednesday brought a trip to the big city (trust me, Colorado Springs does *not* qualify as a big city) to see mama’s friend “Auntie” Dana. While we planned a visit to the botanical gardens, it was so HOT, we started out with lunch instead.

Dana laughs at my description of hot, by the way…7-1/2 years away from Houston have turned me into a wuss.

Since we blew off the botanical gardens, I cheated and took a couple macro photos of…um…the flowerbed at Cherry Creek Mall. Klassy, I know…LOL.

Little Miss waited patiently for us to finish taking photos of other peoples’ flowerbeds.

But wait…what is that on her feet? Yes, we finally got a pair of “real” honest-to-god Robeez. And you know what? I should have done it a long time ago; while the preschoolians are cute, they’re nowhere near as soft, and these actually FIT. And the knock-offs from Target? While they may look similar, they aren’t.

Photo still to come — Auntie Dana found a beeee-you-tee-ful cardigan on the sale rack at Gymboree, so Little Miss has to model once we’re truly in sweater weather.

See him here. (He’s the stocky guy, second from the left.)

Good God…some folks on my “mommy group” were talking about googling exes to see where they’ve gotten off to. Since my college bf, Noe, is the only important one I haven’t kept up with, I figured “why not?”

Last I talked to Noe (1999), he was working for the state of Texas as a lobbyist to the feds in DC…and his boss (GWB) was thinking about running for President. He had aspirations of working in the White House. Looks like he’s made it. Lord knows, he probably gets off on the whole power thing — he was always very into looking important…LOL.

That photo was pre-2004 election. Looks like now, he’s an Associate Director of Political Affairs at the White House. Can’t say I like his boss, but hey, good for him, right?

Proud papa Aaron holding the newest love of his life, his baby daughter.

Having one of the prettiest newborn babies ever (not that I’m biased or anything), I find that it takes a lot for me to think another newborn is beautiful. This baby IS BEAUTFUL. Of course, with such good-looking parents, that’s no huge surprise.

Scott and Maya go back and forth in a dialog of varied screeches. The exchange ends as the dogs’ wrestling match becomes much more interesting to Maya…

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While all the stuff around drives me insane, Maya’s enjoying having Scott around — it keeps it from being all-mama-all-the-time-boring.

For those who’ve asked: Scott is NOT Maya’s father, and no, we’re not involved romantically. That ship sailed LONG ago. In a week, a gal he dated in Thailand (an American teaching English) flies in, then they take off for a camping tour of New Mexico and Arizona.

Oh my god…one of my favorite people in the world became a daddy this weekend, several weeks early! Baby girl Herrick (name to be announced next MONTH in a naming ceremony) is stunning, and I’m just about crying for happiness.

Congratulations to Aaron and Angelique on their baby girl, born Sunday, April 17, at 5:50pm — 6 pounds, 7 ounces and 19 inches long!

She’s gorgeous — probably one of the prettiest newborn babies I’ve seen. Photo proof coming soon when (if) I get permission from the new proud papa. Time to get myself in gear and visit Houston to see this little princess.

I can’t believe it’s been 15-1/2 years (damn, I’m getting old) since Aaron moved into a dorm room across the hall from me at U of Houston. Back then, we called him “Surf” because he was from California. Of course, he was from the Bay Area, but we didn’t let that little piece of trivia sway our uninformed application of nickname…

(was “Maya in a Thai Temple” but Scott’s title was way better)

Scott submitted this photo for the blog. Maya’s made it to Thailand even before I have!

Maya in a Temple in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Who’s Scott, anyway?

Scott’s one of my closest friends — and happens to be an ex (boyfriend/fiance’). It made mutual sense for him to stay with me for a while in August/September/October, so not only did he bear with me during my last uncomfortable, grumpy, moody weeks of pregnancy, but he also took all of those amazing photos I have to remember Maya’s birth. On top of that, he videoed the birth for me, giving me a gift that someday I’ll hope to share with Maya too. (Honestly, I’ve only watched the birth video once…after all, I WAS THERE!)

In late October, Scott took off for Thailand to travel with his cousin and figure out “what’s next” in life. While travelling with the cousin didn’t quite pan out, he’s still enjoying the culture and beauty…and inexpensive cost of living! He’s suggested that perhaps Maya and I should move across the ocean to take advantage of the cheap deals, but I know my family would…well…shoot me. Moving a few states away (if I were to ever do that) would be bad enough. Moving to another part of the world? They’d have a fit.

Anyway, it’s weird to realize that Maya was only five weeks old when Scott took off for parts far away…and she’ll be six MONTHS old by the time he returns to the U.S., assuming he stays on schedule.

Where will he fit into our lives? Oh, he’ll get to be one of those “positive male influences” (RIGHT, Scott???) on Maya for sure…think the “cool uncle.” We’ve talked about “us” and I think I’ve realized that we simply like each other more when we’re neither dating nor living in the same house. Scott provided some good support in those early weeks though. He reminded me today of a night when I was about to lose it. Little-bitty Maya just wouldn’t stop crying, and I was at a total loss of what to do…at 3am. Scott took her to hold her, and told me to sleep, which I did. Little bit slept peacefully on his chest for several hours!

Scott with Maya on her birthday

Nuzzling a one-day-old newborn

Maya peeking over Scott’s shoulder in mid-October. Look at how well she was holding up her head even before one month!