Annual Cool Zoo

Today, I overslept big time. I had the worst time sleeping last night so I spent the morning rushing around getting Ham and I ready to work on my classroom. We had stopped by McDonalds so that I could grab another coffee when I got a call from my cousin wanting us to go to the cool zoo.

I know there is still so much to do for school, but I couldn't miss our annual summer trip to the cool zoo. I told her we could be ready in thirty minutes.

In my previous post, I mentioned how difficult Ham is for me at zoos, bug museums, etc. There is an exception to that general rule and that is when we go with my Uncle and cousins.

There were no temper tantrums, no exaggerated crying, No I want, I need, I do it, mine, me, my. Instead there was laughter and playing. We roamed around the zoo, checked out the animals and ate snowballs in a tree house. It was the perfect way to wrap up our summer. Here's some pictures from today.

Bugs

Have you ever navigated the zoo, the Aquarium or what not with a 2 year old? Did you lose your sanity?

I think those places are designed for that.

Today we navigated the Bug Zoo with not one, but two 2 year olds. I'm not sure how but I somehow managed to talk both my brother (and his kid) and Mr. Yardbird into that today.

It wasn't all that bad.

The drive there was easy with the kids watching a movie in the back seat. Parking was a synch and we were able to pick up coffee on the way. We strolled along insisting our kids hold our hands to which they adamantly refused.

And when we finally got there and our coffee was starting to taste really good, we stepped into a long line behind the medal detectors. You know, the old school kind you used to find in airports. Nothing high-tech. And I'm wondering what sort of security issues they have going on in a bug museum, but the thought flees my mind and I sip on my coffee. The coffee that I know is going to get me through the approaching chaos.

"You can't take that in here", says the cop to my brother and I watch my brother begrudgingly toss his hardly sipped on coffee in the trash and Mr. Yardbird and I follow suit. I thought the coffee might give us the energy to manage our kids, but now that's out of the window.

And we meander around the bug museum staring quizzically at all the tiny bugs, some that swim and some that might kill you if they bit you.  We ponder their existence in quiet solitude and offer tidbits of knowledge to our kids' thirsty little minds.

Did I say meander? ponder? in quiet solitude?

I mean we chased our kids in circles, fumbled over people who were taking pictures (let's face it there is plenty of that going on) and darted through crowds only to just miss the shirt sleeve of our crazy two year olds. Sure we saw bugs. We said, " Look at this bug right here", and when we turned our kids were sprinting on to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing.


Sometimes, we remarkably found each other in the middle of the museum and traded off kids to chase around. "You got that one, I've got this one." and as we ran around we made sure our kids soaked up the endless knowledge of a bug's life by pointing out everything that was rushing past them. That's a skill only for the parent of a two year old.

And finally we sat down to eat a healthy meal of nachos, cookies, french-fries and pizza. And I'm sure the bug zoo is plotting against us as it offers the most sugary junk food assortment. My brother's kid, L, insists on  only eating the chips with no cheese and Ham insists on licking the cheese and not eating the chip. They make the best two year old picky eating companions.

We finish up and watch a 4-D movie, stroll through the butterfly exhibit and as we open the exit door we are pushed out into the gift shop with all its brightly colored toys. My brother, Mr. Y and I beeline to the door, before one of them could mutter an "I want...."

All and all it was a pleasant mildly stressful day with the bugs.

Blue-Pink

Ham and I have been working on colors and counting this summer. I know there are baby Einsteins out there that have their colors and shapes memorized and can count to two thousand and twenty but that's not really what we're striving for over here.

Mostly, I save our lessons in counting for when I'm angry. It usually starts off with " Ham, I'm going to count ten and you better.....___________" And then I fill in the blank with whatever is necessary at the time, such as drop that permanent marker you are using to draw circles on our couch, smearing your yogurt into your hair, the chair, and the kitchen table, and my favorite stop trying to drill a hole into our cat's back with your play drill.

And over time Ham caught on and when I counted he started to finished with the ending numbers.

Eventually he counted for everything -  jumping into the pool, to himself when we were driving and down the steps at his Maw Maw's house. But, it wasn't always fluid. Sometimes it would sound something like 1, 7, 3, 10.

This happened so often that I started doing the same thing - in public.

For example, in my haste to try on clothes in the changing room I told the store worker I had 6 clothes to try on. "See," I said, as I flipped through the outfits, "1, 2, 7, 6."  The woman looked at me like I was nuts for a minute. And the only thing I thought to say was "That's how my toddler does it." She burst into the laughter and said her toddler does the same thing. "1, 3, 2, 9!" she said laughing, as I walked back to the changing room a little mortified.

And as for colors, every now and then, when he feels like it, he will tell you the right color for whatever it is you point to. However, some how or another, he has decided to create a new color called "blue-pink".

He's sees this color everywhere. "That's blue-pink!" he'll say and point into the air. And I look all around for it, but I don't know which one it is. And when he asks for a popsicle, he asks for the "blue-pink" one. This is always a dilemma because I don't have either blue or pink, so I hand him a purple one. He doesn't ever correct me though, which I think is pretty thoughtful since he seems to know exactly what it looks like.