It’s funny how much a toddler’s opinion can effect a person.
Joel took off yesterday and we went to the zoo with some friends of ours and the three kids (Alexis, Branwen, and our friends’ 21 month old, Abigail). It was one of those great idea excursions that you start regretting as you’re trying to get out of the house. 😛 After changing diapers, getting everything together, checking it twice, and still managing to forget something, we were on the road. It took about 40 minutes to get to the metro. From there, it took another… oh… hour or so to get to the stop we wanted. Then it was another 20 minutes or so to get to the zoo entrance. By the time we got to the zoo, it was almost lunch time. 😛 We saw roughly two animals before Alexis leaked through her pants and the baby was crying to eat. *sigh*
The trip continued in much the same vein with Alexis trying to run away constantly (but she was secured on a toddler harness, thankfully) and the baby crying to eat every 2 hours. 2 hours go very quickly in a place like the zoo. We did end up seeing several animals before feeling like we had to leave in order to remain sane and miss some of the rush hour traffic. The best was the sea lion, because we got there just as a handler came out to play with her. That was cool. But how much did the kids really enjoy it? The trip was mostly for them, after all. Alexis seemed to like running more than anything else (as well as yelling at passing people…. helpful things like, “DON’T SQUEAL, BOYS!” though the boys weren’t doing anything). She could run on the local playground if she wanted to. Don’t need a zoo for running. And Abigail seemed to mostly enjoy walking around, too, though she did seem to like the monkeys quite a bit.
We made it home and had our dinner last night (McDonalds because it was too late to try to cook something), and eventually Joel took Alexis upstairs to put her to bed. He and Alexis have a good bedtime routine involving a bedtime prayer, a little bit of play, and a good bit of quality conversation. 🙂 The conversation part usually starts with Joel asking Alexis what she did that day, but last night he didn’t get a chance to ask her. Instead, she started talking about the things she saw. “I saw lions and tigers!” she said. She was excited about the big Mr. Elephant and talked about the kangaroo. She… she… liked it!
As Joel told me about her conversation with him, my mood began to change. What had been a rather irritating day slowly became something to look back on with some fondness and, yes, amusement. It’s amazing how sometimes irritating experiences become worthwhile just because a toddler has enjoyed them. 🙂