Our Trip to the Flying Monkey

On Saturday Dawson and I decided to go to the Flying Monkey with one of my friends, Melanie. The Flying Monkey is in the old Lowe Mill building which was built in 1900 and used as an old textile mill to make yarns and shirts. Later it was also used as a cotton warehouse, then a shoe factory (when boots were needed for Vietnam), then a warehouse for heating systems, and then it was abandoned for many years. In the past few years there has been a lot done to change Lowe Mill, and now it has two main floor where local artists have studios. So it was a lot of fun to see the inside of this old Huntsville building. Now local artists have studios in this building, and it is open to the public to come in, watch the artists work, and you can purchase their work as well.
So when Melanie asked me if I would like to go to the Flying Monkey on Saturday while John was working, I was excited to see somewhere new. I was worried that Dawson wouldn't do well, but he did amazing. He rode through all of the studios looking at art and all of the people there and was generally happy. To get from one floor to the next you have to take a really old elevator. Instead of doors it has gates that the operator has to manually raise and lower each time you get to a floor, and you can see the pulley and the entire elevator shaft from inside. I was worried this might scare Dawson (especially the noise), but he was content and just watched everything go by when we could see the brick inside the elevator shaft. I was so happy that Dawson seemed to enjoy riding around the studios in his stroller!
Before we went to the Flying Monkey, we had lunch at the Blue Plate Diner, a restaurant we've been wanting to try since we have heard so many good things about it. The Blue Plate is only open for breakfast and lunch and is set up like an old diner inside. We had a great waiter who talked to Dawson the whole time we were there. He even introduced Dawson to a younger baby girl sitting nearby and asked if I wanted to take a picture of Dawson with him for his baby book for his first time at Blue Plate (I almost took him up on this, as I love to take pictures of Dawson). Needless to say, with all of this attention, Dawson did wonderful at the restaurant too. This was the first restaurant where I have put him in a high chair and used the cover his Lolly made for him, and he did great! When we were using his old car seat, we always carried it in the restaurant and placed it in a sling near the table for him to sit. Overall, Dawson did great on our little trip to the Blue Plate and the Flying Monkey.
As a general update on Dawson...He has had turkey and chicken so far of his meats to try and really would prefer not to eat either because of their texture. Last night I discovered that he will eat his chicken with no fight if it's in apples, so that's how he ate his chicken last night! Tonight he gets to start his four days of trying beef.
He still isn't officially crawling on his hands and knees, but he can get around by rocking and lunging or 'army crawling,' so it's only a matter of time before he's everywhere! He's pulling up on everything now and loves to walk holding our hands.
As for John and me, we are doing well. John has still been staying busy with work. This past week we were happy to have a couple of his coworkers over. I've continued to stay busy taking care of Dawson, making baby food, and going to the wellness center. Last weekend I made Dawson 511 ounces of baby food, so hopefully that will last a month. I've never made that much at one time, and our freezer looks fully stocked, but I have a feeling I'll be making more before too long! I also found a great recipe to make homemade biter biscuits that only requires juice, flour, and baby cereal. I made Dawson 30 biter biscuits some in the shape of hearts for Valentine's Day and with our Z-shaped cookie cutter. So he's been gumming his heart and Z biter biscuits this week and loving them! We are very much looking forward to our upcoming trip to Asheville, North Carolina to see our friends Josh and Cassandra. And then John and I are looking forward to a ski trip we have planned as well when Dawson will be staying with his Nana and Grandad for a couple of days.
I have posted a few pictures below...

Above: When Dawson wakes up in his crib, he has

learned to push the bumper pad down and watch the door

for us to come in and get him out of bed. As you can

see in the picture he thinks it's funny that he can do this.

Above: Looking toward the door.

Above: Pushing the bumper pad down more, waiting for
Mama or Dada to get him out.

Above: In the process of pulling it down.

Above: Please get me out!

Above: Dawson in a restaurant high chair for

the first time. Although, I didn't take the waiter

up on getting a picture with him, I did sneak a

couple pictures of Dawson in the high chair.

Above: He loved being free to look around

at Blue Plate!