The Little Mermaid at Zach Scott Theatre.

We recently were the fortunate winners of a ticket giveaway by Central Texas Mom, and got tickets to go see The Little Mermaid at Zach Scott theatre! We were so excited, especially since we had seen this show advertised in advance but it had slipped my mind to buy tickets, and so despite being home from San Antonio for mere hours before heading back out, off we went downtown to catch the 7 p.m. show one Friday.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I grew up on Disney's version of The Little Mermaid, and had been forewarned that this was much truer to Hans Christian Andersson's version, which I hadn't read. Though I do wish I had familiarized myself with it prior to the show so that I could brief her that there could be a couple potentially unsettling parts, it ended up not being a big deal, since she's a.) insanely brave for a three-year-old, and b.) understood it was pretend and held my hand when she felt a bit nervous about the "sea witch".

We unfortunately weren't allowed to take picture during the show - pretty standard for any productions these days - I did get this snapshot of the set when we walked in:

It was pretty great. The show itself was quite entertaining, with the use of puppets and projection screens to tell the story and handle the difficult staging on the mermaid turning into a human. Pretty creative! 

All in all, I would highly recommend children's productions at Zach Scott. I've now seen both The Little Mermaid and Goodnight Moon in both of their smaller theatres, and never am anything short of impressed!

Open Gym at The Little Gym of Round Rock!

One of my favorite benefits of being a member of The Little Gym of Round Rock is the times that they hold "open gym" time. Rather than a scheduled class, this is time when the gym is open to certain age groups to come and just practice and play! In case the use of the facility isn't enough, they have instructors on hand to guide them through this practice time, helping them try new moves or work on ones they're particularly interested in. 

For Ava, this was definitely back handsprings:

Ava typically likes to practice a newly learned skill repeatedly, something that isn't always an option at home without TLG's awesome equipment and techniques, so this was a great chance for her to do back handsprings until her little heart was content! And believe me - she did! 

Ava enjoying her free time in the gym:

Another skill Ava wanted to try her hand at while we had time to practice was a front flip on the bars. If you think this sounds too advanced for a three-year-old, you haven't met the amazing "coaches" at The Little Gym. Ava's always believed herself invincible, but they certainly inspire her confidence to try new things in a way that continuously amazes me :)

Aside from free play, they also offer a bit of structure for kids who desire it. For example, during our time at open gym on this particular day, Coach Ashlee brought out some basketballs and a miniature hoop, to provide a bit of structure in the chaos and offer the children a chance to hone their hand-eye coordination and gross motor skills! 

That looks like one satisfied customer, right? If you've yet to check out The Little Gym of Round Rock, you can find them online here, or check out their Facebook page for more information. They also have a Lakeline location for those closer to Cedar Park and Northwest Austin.

Our Little Onion: 17 Weeks!

How far along: 17 weeks

Net weight gain/loss: Not mentally stable enough to weigh myself this week :P I've been eating...terribly.

Maternity clothes: I wore some over the weekend for comfort sake, and oooh it was lovely! Thankfully, though, I can still fit into my real shorts and jeans (though not my "skinny" jeans!)

Stretch marks: nope

Belly button: still an innie 

Sleep: never enough!

Baby movement: yes, daily, LOVE IT!

Gender: boy!

Food cravings: strawberries! YUM. And chocolate chip muffins. Hence why I won't weigh myself til I make better decisions.

Food aversions: ice cream. This baby HATES it. Unfortunately, this mama loves it!

What I miss: ice cream without intense stomach pain and nausea. No more ice cream until October, probably :(

Looking forward to: 10/23 - haha!

Best moment this week: having someone notice I was pregnant out in public. I so prefer those adoring and knowing looks as opposed to the looks that seem to say, "Wow, you're getting a bit fat..."

Milestones: I went 7 straight days without Zofran! Could it be the end?! (Update: after that seven days, I decided to go off the Unisom I take nightly to control nausea - long story, but something to do with the nausea receptors - and bam! It can right back and had to start taking Zofran again. Needless to say, after three days of being sick, I'm OVER it and back on the Unisom. Today went much better!)

2.5 weeks til my halfway mark (I'm only going to 39 - woot woot!). So close, yet SO far. Ugh.

Wordless Tuesday: Jump!

Baby Boy's Bedding!

As long as it looks this cute when it arrives (damn you, internet shopping!), this will be our baby boy's bedding :) LOVE! Update: it looks even better in person! SO happy with it!

Our Mini-Cation to San Antonio: The Conclusion!

I didn't have this in mind to be a three part post, but with the amount of pictures I took while away, it quickly turned into that! 

After the zoo the other day, I didn't want the fun to end on such a sour note, so we made one more stop in Brackenridge Park: the Japanese Tea Gardens! I've always driven by here en route to the zoo (it's directly next door), and always wanted to go, so go we went! I'm so glad we did - it was so insanely beautiful!!

All in all, San Antonio is a fun place to be for 24-48 hours, though I still have no desire to live there :) After we wrapped things up at the hotel and checked out after D's lunch meetings, we headed back home to Austin, where all three (four, actually) of our hearts live. So happy to be home!

Our Mini-Cation to San Antonio: Day 2!

Like I said in my previous post about our trip to San Antonio, day two started with a bit of a hitch. Rain had been on the forecast for the trip, but so far we had been lucky and had beautiful blue skies! Unfortunately, when skies turned dark the first night, they also turned stormy, and we had hail that night, and some major rain and thunderstorms when we woke up. AHH! Seeing as how we had been planning to meet up with some local friends at the San Antonio Zoo, we were sad to see the weather change! After revising our plans to include a museum in place of the zoo, we set out to find breakfast, where Ava must have eaten her weight in breakfast food!

By some miracle, the weather turned from gray to blue during our breakfast outing, and we were able to go to the zoo after all (though by ourselves, since our friends had already made other plans!). First, though, we had eyed the Tower of the Americas during breakfast, and we decided to celebrate the gorgeous weather turnaround by heading up to it!

This was probably one of the low points of our trip. We paid $8 for parking since there is ZERO street parking in San Antonio (hey, city planners! fix this ASAP!), only to not be told that it didn't open for nearly an hour after we arrived! I guess it's somewhat my fault for not checking, but why wouldn't it be open at 9am on a weekday, especially when it's all about the view?!?!? The good thing is that while we were there, we managed to see a few fun things and take some pictures, and we really look forward to going back to go up int he tower the next trip!

Here's what we did do while on the Tower grounds:

Ava was just happy to ride this horse. Thankfully, this didn't give me sticker shock the way parking did.

After we left the Tower of the Americas, we headed over to Brackenridge Park to the San Antonio Zoo! We've been here multiple times, and it never fails to be awesome. Austin has a ridiculously laughable zoo, and this one puts ours to shame! But first, before we went in, we had to ride the train around the park for the first time. It had turned into a gorgeous day for a train ride at the park, but apparently we were the only ones who though so:

 Oh well, private tour to ourselves! Here's what we saw:

Pardon the selfie Ava took of the two of us:

After that, we headed into the zoo!

Up until this point, we had a great time. The zoo was practically empty (see above), and animals like bears that are notorious for hiding during the heat were out and about, which made for a treat for us! But, then, things turned :( As we walked into the next part of the Africa section, it turned into an episode of When Animals Attack, with this bird literally attacking Ava! 

Lest you think I'm a terrible mother for standing by with a camera when she was being attacked, know that at this point, the bird seemed just very interested in Ava, and we were commemorating how she made a friend at the zoo. WRONG. The second I snapped this, the bird swooped onto her head, repeatedly trying to peck at her and scratch at her. I batted him away while she huddled on the ground screaming, covering her with my body, and was able to pick her up and run with her. There was a set of double doors ahead that I was trying to get to, but the bird swooped down and went for her a second and third time. Thankfully, she managed to make it out unharmed, but super traumatized. She wanted to leave the zoo immediately, but I was able to convince her to stay. Unfortunately for me, it required me to carry her through the zoo for the remainder - a laughable feat for a pregnant woman overdressed for the sudden heat. 

Unfortunately it was at this point that our second - and final - mishap happened. Ava went running to look at something, and totally ate it on the sidewalk, scraping both her knees and palms and was bleeding and hysterical. Needless to say, it was time to go!

Before we left the city, we had one more adventure, but I'll tell you about that in another post tomorrow, when I haven't already photo bombed you to death! :)