First of many...

Becoming a Mom means a lot of different things. One of them is, eventually, you have to face some of your own fears for your kids. As Jacob is growing into a little man, I'm trying to let him grow into his own without too many of my quirks...or fears. I try to let him get (just a little, ha) bit dirty when he's playing outside. Well, because he's a boy and they're supposed to do that. I try not to chase him down all day with soap and a paper towel. I also try to let him play with whatever he wants...even if I know I would never (ever!) do it myself.

Case in point....

We still have our memberships to the zoo. We've been trying to go once every week or 2 weeks. It's pretty smouldering outside, but, we still enjoy going every now and  then for a few hours in the morning. Last week, we were there with my Mom and sister and stopped in one of the indoor exhibits to see some reptiles, amphibians, etc. For as long as I can remember I've been afraid of just about everything that's housed in this little building. Bugs, bugs, more bugs.....,but, most afraid of snakes.

My parents live on a lake and I always remember seeing water moccaassins in their neighborhood. Once, there was one inside my neighbors pool, while we were swimming in it! Then, once or twice we found small green garden snakes INSIDE the house. Uh, vomit! Lastly, once I think I was in about 6th grade. We were playing outside with some friends and about 2 houses down, we found a snake in the street. The snake was literally the size of a small anaconda. I'm not even joking. It was probably at least 10 feet long and at least a foot wide. My ran to get my parents and they came to run over it a few times with their car...didn't even phase the snake. It was disgusting!!!! Needless to say, I've had more than my fair share of nasty snake experiences.

So, back to the zoo, we're walking around and get to the end of the exhibit - where a lot of the snakes are. Ewww. When we came around the corner, a crowd of people were around a ledge. We walked over and one of the snakes was out of it's cage to let everyone pet it. Ahh. Jacob of course runs over to see. I had to decide quickly if I was going to start to relay my fears on him or try to act brave. As much as I was cringing and screaming inside, I attempted the latter...

Look at that thing! Gross!!!!! I think my face explains how I feel in this picture below, ha.

I was pretty proud of myself afterwards. Jacob actually loved it. He wanted to call his Daddy afterwards to tell him about it and he talked about it all night when he got home from work. For the record, we sanitized after touching the milk snake. :)

Here are a few other pictures from the rest of our day at the zoo last week. I love having a great zoo so close to our house!



I'm also thankful for my Mom and sister who always go to the zoo with us. There's no way I could take both boys by myself right now. :) Looking forward to our next zoo trip! Not so much to see the snakes, though. ;)