Zooday Tuesday: Pterodactyls Are NOT Extinct!

For weeks now, I had been dreading today. See, today was to be a very special day. Today was the family zoo trip for Reiss and his class and the class across the hall from his. What joy - a day at the zoo with twenty-some three, four, and five-year-olds. And as an added bonus, some of them - Reiss included - had their siblings with them. Maybe "dread" is not the right word for how I had been counting down the days to today. Perhaps "very cautiously optimistic" is more appropriate.

Before I go any further, I'll just preface this story by stating if you were to ask James how the zoo trip went, you will get a totally different story than mine. Keep in mind though, James is not the manic mommy I am and he also was not the one accosted by THE bee....more on that later.

Our day started out like most days when Reiss goes to preschool, except for today Reiss was not going to school. Because Milla and I were going on the zoo trip as well, Reiss was to ride with us instead of on the bus taking the children to the zoo.

As I was getting everything ready to go - lunches packed, extra clothes in case anyone had an "accident" (I'm pretty consistent so I didn't pack any clothes for myself.), check the diaper wipes container, make sure the kids' cups are full, James called and said he wasn't terribly busy at work and did I want him to go with us? Uh....how am I supposed to responed to this? I didn't want to jump on it with an overly-excited "YES!!!" but I also didn't want him to feel like he was neglecting anything at work. I opted for the old stand-by, "It's up to you, Dear." And it was decided James would go with us and we would pick him up from work on our way to the zoo. As if we weren't already running around like a bunch of crazies to get out of here - or maybe that was just me since Reiss and Milla were running around getting underfoot - I now needed to pack more lunch food in the bags, more drinks, more everything. But I'm not complaining because James was going and that meant I would have help!

It was about the time I got off the phone with James when Reiss started asking for the phone he's been playing with for a few days now. We must have twenty toy phones around here but he needed this specific phone that is a cheaply made little thing from Dollar Tree. Forget all the phones specifically designed for toddlers to have a "learning experience" with all their colorful buttons on them that make the phone talk, sing, dance, and whatever else when you press them! No, Reiss wanted the one that looks like a real cell phone and was made in China by someone who probably gets a cup of rice to eat every other day. Don't blame me - Grandma bought it!

We could not find the stupid cell phone and it was time to leave. I had a bad feeling from the get-go that I should just risk being late to the zoo and look around until we found that phone but the other voice inside me said I needed to get our rears out the door and on the road. Bad decision.

After fetching James from work and a remarkably uneventful drive to the zoo (it's downtown - enough said), with the exception of listening to Reiss go on and on about the cell phone, we arrived just as the children from Reiss's class were unloading from the bus. Except for James, our admissions were prepaid with the permission slip that was sent home on Tuesday of last week and needed to be back by Thursday. Seriously....Reiss only goes to school on Tuesday and Thursday, so you'd think they would not only give a little more advance scheduling with the form being sent home but more time in which to return it. Oh well, we're responsible parents and got it turned back in on time so I guess no foul, no harm or however that saying goes.

We were prepared to pay for James to get in but somehow it worked out that he was able to just walk in, as well as another parent who had not planned on coming prior to today and had not prepaid either. Maybe Miss Kathryn gave the zoo admissions people a really charming smile or something.

So we all got in the gate and it was like the gunshot at a horse race and all the horses bolt down the lanes. All the people in our group bolted off towards the dolphin pavilion for the show that was going to take place within the half hour. Meanwhile, James, Reiss, Milla, and I were trudging along at a crawl with Reiss crying and wiping his eyes because he didn't get his hand stamped like Mommy and Daddy did by the zoo admissions lady. James rubbed his stamp on Reiss's hand and some of the ink rubbed off on his little hand. That seemed to satisfy him for a bit but then as we were making our way towards the dolphin pavilion Reiss started in again about wanting the cell phone. We did not go to the dolphin show. I knew Reiss wouldn't sit still for that long and especially not when his only focus was on wanting that %$^&*# phone. Yes, we tried giving him my real cell phone. It didn't work. Even Daddy's cell phone with it's really cool little built-in camera was a no-go.

We walked, Reiss talked....about the phone. Then he was hungry and we brought out the animal cookies. Wasn't that appropriate - animal cookies at the zoo. Hopefully, I'm not the only one who thought that was kinda cute. Reiss talked about going home to get the phone. I threatened to leave the zoo and go home but somehow it didn't have the effect I was hoping for since Reiss wanted to go home. He got the lecture about not talking about the phone and not running away and behaving and if the stars were aligned just right, we would visit the gift shop as we left. Occasionally, we saw an animal here or there as we walked.

Now I don't want anyone to think I had an absolutely miserable time at the zoo but I will admit that I find it a bit pathetic that my biggest joy was not in seeing my children's reactions to the animals, but my own reaction to the little meerkats frolicking around in the "Deserts" exhibit. They were so cute and playful and friendly. One came up and sat right up against the glass wall separating them from us. Reiss did say something funny about the meerkats and I'm ashamed because I don't remember what it was. It's not that I am focusing on his tunnel-vision for wanting the phone, it's just a fact that the phone placed such a wrench in our enjoyment today.

In past trips to the zoo, Reiss has shown little interest in the animals at the zoo but I can't help but wonder if things would have been different today had we just stayed home a few minutes longer and found that phone. He would have had it with him, probably would have lost interest in it after a few minutes, and most likely would have tossed it into the basket of the stroller. Maybe, just maybe, he would have been satiated by the phone before we even got to the zoo and been more attentive to the animals that we were there to see.

Moving on....

We went to eat our lunch under a huge outdoor tent that normally has chairs and tables under it. Today it only had tables, no chairs. We plopped down in the grass to eat our lunch only to have a bee the size of my head take an obscene interest in me. It flew around me. It hovered around me. It landed on me. Several times. As this was going on, I grew progressively more concerned and by the time Miss Kathryn came over to tell me that it was just a carpenter bee and only the males/females (sorry, can't remember which) have stingers, I was shaking uncontrollably. Thank you, Miss Kathryn, but that isn't much comfort when
a) I don't have an entomological degree and therefore, cannot tell if said bee is female or male.
b) my father is nearly deathly allergic to bees.
c) I haven't been stung in so long that I don't know if I'm allergic or not and hence,
d) I don't carry an epi-pen.

We have carpenter bees around our property all the time and they're nothing new to me but they usually don't stalk me for ten minutes either. The ones we usually see also aren't the size of Texas and make me question the extinction of pterodactyls. Yes, it was that big. Don't believe the propaganda - there are ancients amongst us and pterodactyls roam the skies.

Right after what seemed like an insanely long time spent trying to get in four or five bites of my salmon salad on a bed of greens, Reiss took off running. My lunch was over and I finally caught up to him about a hundred yards into his sprint. Just as I returned, Milla crawled under the tent's side canopy. After retrieving Milla, James wisely declared he thought it was time to leave. Less than two hours into our trip to the zoo that was to be a four hour trip, we headed for the exit.

We did not visit the gift shop on the way out.

And oh yeah, I forgot to mention the blueberry my little angel, Milla, so delicately placed down the backside of my pants.