Mommy's Moment: Zoo

Exhale. Today. Today, I came close to losing my mind. Take three kids to the zoo? No problem. I was a teacher. I took a whole class to the zoo before. Three kids, piece of cake. Ha. Ha, Ha, Ha. Taking my three to the zoo, became a zoo in and of itself. But before I move on, my deepest thanks to my great friend, Kim, for bringing us along on her pass. I am grateful. Grateful to spend time with her and her kids. Grateful to get out of the house for a bit. Grateful because my kids got to experience something they hadn't gotten to experience before.

I had high hopes. Hopes that including spending time at each exhibit talking about the animals, watching them in their habitats, and even finding animals that start with different letters of the alphabet. I hear you laughing. Keep laughing. Because of course, that NEVER happened. Instead, within in minutes of arriving my dear, sweet, precious Kate LOST IT. I brag about her a lot. Today, I won't. In the midst of massive lines of school children and other strolling moms and dads with better behaved kids, I pushed through with Kate screaming. And who was there to echo her cries? Mr. Grant. You see, I needed his blanket. I was going to crawl into a corner and hold tightly to it, hoping all the problems would go away like they always seem to do when he cuddles with it. But seeing as though DFACS may intervene I decided for a more practical use, to block the sun from glaring into Kate's screaming face. Perhaps that will calm her down. Well it didn't. It did fire Grant up. So, there we roll, past the lions, elephants (heck I don't even recall what animals we passed by in those moments) with two of my little animals making their own exhibit of themselves. I was reliving our Walmart runs all over again. In desperation, I picked Kate out of the stroller. Silence. Go figure. Believing I was stronger than I am, I decided to TRY to stroll Grant (it's a double stroller) with one hand while holding Kate in the other. We only made it to the next exhibit. Grant, too heavy for me, rode in 32 week pregnant, Kim's stroller while her two walked with Hannah. Doing something I always frowned upon during my "oh so wiser before I actually had kids" days, I carried Kate on my hip while pushing an EMPTY double stroller. Yes, I was one of those moms I passed judgement on years ago. Did I say motherhood is humbling? Gulp. I swallow my pride again.

And, while we're talking about doing things I'd never thought I'd do, let's add another to the list. I breastfed in public. I hold NOTHING against moms who do this, I am just super self conscious and often opt to do it somewhere in private. Not today. I did not have that luxury. Thankfully, my "Udder Cover" came in handy. Go ahead, laugh. That's what they call it. So I sat, hoping to appease my ever so fussy Kate while looking carefully at each side of my "cover" to insure I was fully covered. It worked. After lunch was had by all I will say the trip calmed down a bit. Kate slept. Grant forgot momentarily about his "Blankey Boy" and found excitement in all things animals. Hoping for those Kodak Moments, I kept my camera in hand. Yeah. It didn't happen. It was all I could do to help corral our kids and make sure they didn't end going home on a school bus with kids in red shirts. By the time Nolan had to go to the bathroom again, Kim and I looked at each other, both thinking the same thing but hesitant to say it..."Let's Go." We said our goodbyes. We walked our separate ways. By the time my crew made it to the van crankiness set in. Hannah complained her legs hurt. Grant remembered Blankie Boy and insisted on taking it back from Kate. Mouths were thirsty. Heads were aching. Within 5 minutes of leaving the zoo, two little heads with eyes closed bobbed to the side in the back. Kate, on the other hand, squealed in delight. I do believe she was the most excited of all to be making our way back home.

Happy Zoo Day. We'll be returning when Kate is three.