We went to the zoo for the first time on Monday with my mom and K really enjoyed it. The stroller only lasted about 15 minutes before we switched to wearing, but we covered three of the four loops in the zoo (skipped the African loop because we got to it late in the day and she was ready to get down), the bird area and the rainforest building. She especially loved the Asian otters as they were running and playing in their stream when we were there. She also enjoyed all the birds, the crows as much as the toucan and other wild birds. I think her favorite part was getting down on the grass and eating raspberries though!
At 9 months she is very speedy with her crawling and cruising more. She's more interested in foods - her favorites are blueberries and raspberries, but she likes fruit, fish and meat in general. Vegetables, grains and cheeses are hit and miss, but she often likes carrots, sweet potato, string cheese and brie. Pouches work sometimes, but she grabs them and if I'm not fast we both end up wearing the whole thing, so they don't work well as on the go foods for us.
She isn't very vocal yet, but watches everyone and everything very intently.
Working full time and commuting an average total of 3 hours a day leaves very little time for family down time (let alone down time for me). I plan to change my schedule to get into the office early and leave early to reduce traffic, but with limited sleep (a good night is still about 5-6 hours of sleep, with interruptions) I also find it hard to leave the house before 7am. There are huge benefits to working too though - I have great coworkers and enjoy the time spent working through challenges on a professional level.
