Day 5: Bentley's 2ND BIRTHDAY and a visit to The San Diego Zoo!

Saturday, August 19TH...

Our little Bentley Stone Harker Campbell turned 2 this day!

Before I forget here are his 2 year growth stats:

His weight is up a little from his previous 18 month Well Check. 

He weighs 24 pounds which put him in the 10% for weight.

His height sadly is only in the 4TH%.  

Yes, he's short.  He probably stands no chance of playing NBA basketball, although he LOVES to shoot hoops outside with dad.

Don'tchya worry though- his head might make up for his small stature some.  It's in the 39% for size.

He's healthy- that's really all that matters.  He's still behind for gross motor and fine motor skills... his doc suggested we wait and watch over the next 6 months to see if he catches up, otherwise we'll have to take him to be evaluated for physical therapy.  The great news, his vocabulary is stellar for his age!  This could be due to the fact he repeats EVERYTHING his 3 older brothers say or maybe he's just going to be a talker!  His favorite saying thus so far has to be "NO!" and "I don't like you!" and I nearly forgot, "____ (insert name of brother in blank space) hit me!". No worries- he's not getting beat up all of the time... he says this even when one of his brothers looks at him the wrong way.   Bentley is extremely sensitive.

Bentley LOVES to eat- he'll eat just about anything- and he'll feast ALL.DAY.LONG!  He also LOVES his milk.  He likes to call it "water" but don't make the mistake and give him water when he's asking you for it, because what he REALLY wants is milk and he'll pitch a fit!!!

He's a busy boy!  He's REALLY grown leaps and bounds since he began walking in April/May.  He enjoys dancing to music.  He also likes to line cars up in a row... don't mess with his cars.  He's just about the sweetest thing you have met! His smile makes my heart melt!  He really LOVES his brothers, but he's especially close to Cohen.  The two of them will bicker and fight, calling back and forth to each other, "I don't LIKE you!" then without words, hug and kiss it out.  I pray it always stays like this, but something tells me that hugging and kissing your brother when you're 14 years old just may NOT be the cool thing to do.

Bentley's my cuddle bug.  He LOVES to cuddle and sit on our laps.  And he Love LOVES loves to give kisses... open mouthed ones... we're working on it so he doesn't scare away girls in the future!

He's so tiny and cute--- their really is NO better way to explain him other than by using the word DELICIOUS!  I LOVE that Bentley Boy!  I know he has his dad sure wrapped around his finger.  I don't want to call Spencer out, but if he did have favorites, I'd have to say Bentley would be his.

Anyhow...  here's the run down for how our day went...

We didn't get off to a very early start--- as you might recall we visited Disneyland and California Adventure Park the two days before...

We did eventually make it out the zoo that day... The World Famous San Diego Zoo that is!  It was crowded.  Probably more crowded this day than I'd ever seen it before in my life!!!  Which ultimately, was great news for the zoo, business is ALWAYS good, especially in a tough economy, but it was bad news for me!  After 2 days at "The Happiest Place on Earth", I couldn't bear to deal with any more crowds.  It's a good thing I'd been to the zoo a gazillion times before with my kids--- I didn't feel like I had to stick around there for very long.  We spent about 2 hours there with my boys and my sister Janna and her kids.

That's Bentley in the yellow shirt below..

Poor kid was stuck for a while on top of this pedestal at the zoo.

Yeah, it looks like it's just a hop down,

but for Bentley to climb UP it, 

it was like scaling a MOUNTAIN!

For some reason or other, even though we went to the zoo this day to see LIVE animals, my kids kept wanting to play with/on these fake animal statues... what ev.

They LOVED this giant Phoenix.

... And this hideous sloth...

This animal that didn't budge an in inch fascinated them!

I thought it was rather boring myself.

Bentley enjoyed watching the gibbons and the orangutans...

I liked this one... 

He was rolling all over the place... 

sort of reminded me of Ian the day before at Disneyland throwing his tantrums!

I'm writing this next little bit to serve as a reminder to myself in the future:  It's definitely NOT a good idea to wear 3 inch wedge heels to walk around in at the zoo... going up hills SUCKS, but going down the hills there WITH the heels on PUSHING A STROLLER is downright DANGEROUS!

Okay, so Bentley didn't really want his picture taken with MOM.

I won't take it to heart. 

Does this new zoo sign bother anyone else other than me???

I HATE it! 

It's SO UGLY!

I'd rather see the old '70's looking one still there instead.

Following the zoo, we let Bentley open his presents and we enjoyed cupcakes and ice cream.  We all missed having Spencer there to celebrate with us, but it was so much fun having my family there to celebrate this special day in Bentley's life.

Look at him eyeing those cupcakes!

He wasn't messing around when he blew out the candles.

It really took quite a lot of convincing on my niece Paresa's end

to get Bentley to open up his gift from them...

But he eventually gave in and opened it!