Dixie Reptile Show

The above picture is Leeland in the car on the way to Birmingham. He was such a good boy! Birmingham is about 4 hours away from us. Brent wanted to be there close to opening time, which was 10 a.m., so that meant we had to leave EARLY! Brent and I got up at 5:30 a.m.! I waited until the last second to wake Leeland up, and just changed his diaper and left his PJ's on. We left our house about 6 a.m. and headed to Dunkin Donuts for some wake-up coffee! I put a portable DVD player on the back of Leeland's seat for the trip, since he is still rear-facing and can't see the one installed in the van. I thought for sure he would go back to sleep, but he enjoyed watching a Little People DVD.

The day trip to Birmingham was very fun! Brent and I had never been to a reptile show before, so it was a cool experience. As far as shows go, it was not very big, but there was enough for us to look at! There were some awesome animals there, and some of the most interesting and beautiful snakes we've seen so far! One of my favorites was a banana morph ball python. The baby bearded dragons were so cute and had such nice color! I was very tempted to bring one home! After looking around, we decided to purchase a young adult female gargoyle gecko, and a baby crested gecko. Both geckos are settled in nicely at our home now, and are doing well! We also bought a BUNCH of bugs for feeders! A box of 1,000 crickets AND superworms! We also got superworm food from the guy selling the insects, so he gave us these worms he called reptiworms for free to try. He said that they have the nutritional value of two crickets.. whatever.. they are gross, most of the geckos won't eat them, and we don't like them! They are actually just black fly larvae.. YUCK!

After we had everything we needed, we decided to go back home since it was still pretty early in the afternoon. We were wiped by the time we got home and got everything we needed for our new additions and got them settled in their new homes.

As for the photos from the show, the first on is a Piebald morhp ball python.. that animal is amazing! It's so expensive because of all the white it has. Most Piebalds just have floating "islands" of white.

The second one is baby leopard turtles! I held a baby redfoot, but the pic that Brent took is blurry. I want a turtle SO BAD, but it's illegal to have them as pets in TN!

The third and forth ones are of the adorable baby bearded dragons.

The fifth photo is of the Banana morph ball python that I liked so much.

Just some pictures!

Okay, since the last post was so long, here's another one just for the pictures!

Critters:










Leeland:

A great start to 2011

So, I am terrible at updating this thing. My friend Angela was asking on Facebook if anyone had a blog and I remembered this.. I really need to be better about updating this.. so maybe that can be my new years resolution! Yes, I know it's February, but hey, gotta start somewhere, right? I'll try to update this on a monthly basis at least to keep all of you guys that we love, but don't get to see often, up-to-date.

So far, we've had a pretty good 2011! Leeland is growing up so fast and getting so big. He's not only walking like a pro, but he runs now! He is such a sweet boy, but he is learning how to assert himself..aka is learning to throw fits.. haha. It can be very trying of our patience, but we do our best to stick to our guns and stay cool-headed. Leeland is jabbering all the time now, as he is learning to talk and make all kinds of new sounds. The only words he says reliably right now are "dada", "dog", "mama", "more", and "milk". Not even all of those are crystal clear yet. He has said some crazy things a time or two like "dinosaur", my friend, Melissa's name, and other things he's asked about. He's not repeating those yet, but boy, is he like a little sponge right now! He wants to know what everything is! Leeland is also getting very good at pointing, especially when we ask him to show us something in a book.. it's pretty cute!

At Leeland's last check-up a few weeks ago, he was still only 17 1/2 lbs, and 31 inches long! His percentiles are in the average range except for weight, and he's weigh below off the chart for that, but what else would you expect from a Siefken, hehe! He always gets a great, clean bill of health, and our pediatrician is always so sweet and encouraging to me, telling me that I am doing a great job.

Leeland really enjoys playing outside and going new places now. I try to take him somewhere out of the house once a week, and I try to take him out on daily basis, provided the weather cooperates.

As far as happenings other than Leeland, Brent and I have been getting into herpetology. We now own 12 geckos- 11 leopard geckos, and 1 crested gecko. We are currently in the process of breeding the leopard geckos. We have had two successful pairing so far, so we should have our first eggs in a few weeks! Brent and I love all kinds of critters, and reptiles are, in general, pretty easy to care for.. especially when you have previous experience. We found a local online forum here in Knoxville that is a community for other people who are into keeping reptiles as well. We've made some great friends from there, and it's proved to be a great resource. All but one of our geckos have come from someone that belongs to the forum. Right now, we keep most of our geckos in what is called a rack system. They live in plastic boxes that are all in a shelving unit that has heat tape in the back that keeps them warm. It's not the most luxurious way to live, but they don't mind, and it saves space and is a very efficient way to keep a bunch of reptiles. We are having a lot of fun, and we have a good little variety of geckos right now. It's been really neat to learn all about the genetics and what you'll get when you breed this one to that one, etc. It's a great hobby. We are very excited to see what kind of babies we'll get!

This past weekend, we actually met up with our forum friends and a bunch of us went to a place in Sevierville called Rainforest Adventures. It's basically an exotic zoo. They have all kinds of neat reptiles, birds, and furry critters! They even have caymans and lemurs! We got to see a live show, and that was really fun! We got to pet all kinds of exotic animals- including a porcupine, a young alligator, and the BIGGEST albino Burmese python that I have ever seen! She was easily twelve feet long! I talked to a parrot who told me "Happy Birthday!" and held a blue-tongued skink. We all had a great time getting to see all the critters and look around. We got Leeland this little stretchy, rubbery type centipede bug thing.. haha, it's hard to explain. Anyways, he LOVES this thing! He carries it around everywhere, and even sleeps with it! It's like his little lovey. It's funny.

Here soon, we plan on going to the Dixie Reptile Show in Birmingham, AL. It'll be a great place to acquire more critters, as well as get a great deal on food for all our guys and maybe even another rack. I will be sure to take pictures and do a blog update about it afterwards!


We've also been working on upgrading our salt-water aquarium. The biggest change is new LED lights-- they look awesome!

Okay, whew! I'm done for now! I'm going to leave you with some recent pictures of Leeland, and of our geckos so you all can see what I am talking about! We send our love to everyone reading this, and we hope all of you are well! <3

Leeland is walking!!

So, it's been way too long since I have updated this, and I will get an update posted soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this video of Leeland walking!

Rear facing is safer

Just posting this video on here so I will always have a place to see and and send people to!

Pictures, Updates, and Videos!

So sorry it has been so long since I have updated this! It seems the older Leeland gets, the busier he keeps me! I kept telling myself, "I'll do it soon.." and it has just been too long!

Leeland is now six and half months old, twenty-seven inches long, and still not quite fourteen pounds (long and skinny like dad!)! He is a healthy, happy little guy and still just the best baby we could ask for! He is on solids now (which so far consist of cereal and veggies)! His favorites foods so far are sweet potatoes, butternut and acorn squash, and peas. He has had several other foods but those seem to be the ones that he just can't get enough of! We have a few more green veggies to try, and then we will move on to fruit!

Leeland also sleeps through most of the night when his teeth are not bothering him! Yes, that's right.. I said TEETH! He is cutting his two bottom teeth, and boy, I feel like the are bigger every day!

We got a Knoxville Zoo membership towards the end of February, and we go about once a week with one of my best friends, Katelyn, and her little girl, Addalyn. Leeland loves to just check everything out! The last time we went, we go to see the bird show and a hawk flew right over us! We also got to see the ever-famous African Grey Parrot, Einstein. She is TOO COOL!

I have joined a group called PEP Moms, and it's a really cool group that meets at a local church once a month from the Fall to the Spring and we are put in groups of other moms that have children close to the same age. Our meetings are over until the Fall, but we do playdates pretty often with the moms and kiddos from there. Some of the ladies and myself actually went out for a Ladies Night Out lastnight and we saw the movie, "Babies".

Anyways, at times it is just so hard to believe that Leeland is growing up so fast!

I just remembered to mentioned that he is "army" crawling! He will scoot around pulling himself along with his arms, but he is also getting super close to really crawling! He gets up on his knees and rocks, and will get one knee forward, and maybe the other before he seems to lose his balance. I will have to get some pics and/or a video of him doing it!

I hope all of you that are reading this are well, and we are looking forward to seeing the Indy family soon!

Hope everyone enjoys the pictures and videos!

More of Leeland's 3 Month Photoshoot

Hey all!

Just wanted to share the rest of the pictures with you. We got the disc today. Jen did such a great job! Just click on the link to my Facebook to see the rest!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=193558&id=828334347&l=d075d35ee8




Love,

Hannah