It's A Zoo Day

It is a beautiful day so I thought it would be nice to spend some time outside. At first I thought letting the girls run around at a nearby park sounded like fun, then I remembered that the children's zoo is only open for another month before it closes for fall/winter. Then I had another brilliant idea. I thought it would be fun having company so I called up my friend Hilary and asked if she wanted to join us. She said sure and that she knew of someone else who would like to come, her friend Brenda. The adults were out numbered; 3 to 8. All was going well until it was time to sit and eat. Nobody seemed to mind except for Audrey. As I have mentioned before, Audrey is very busy, likes to do things her way and in her time. She was not ready to have lunch. There was too much to see and do to sit down and eat. So, she responded in the only way she knows how; screaming and flinging kool-aid at myself and her sister. I have watched Super Nanny and observed the parenting techniques of my friends, but when Audrey throws a fit I become clueless. What I would really like to do is sit her down and walk away. However, that is not legal, so I did my best to ignore her, threaten to go home, & sat her in a small time out in the stroller. Once lunch time was over, she was more than happy to leave the picnic area, but she wasn't too keen on holding anyone's hand. I felt like all eyes were on me and that people were waiting to see what I would do next.

I am going to digress. If you have been following my blog for any length of time you will notice many references to Audrey's temper. I don't want to give her a bad reputation. She is actually my sweet love bug. She is my right hand girl, my little shadow. Without her my life would be boring. She is just very determined and independent & much different than her big sister was at that age. I know from hearing stories that she is a lot like me at that age, so I probably deserve the stress. But, I also think Audrey was born to be a fighter. Born at 2lbs, 7 oz I knew I was going to have a tough cookie on my hands. I will never forget the day I knew I was going to have my hands full. She was only a couple days old. Steven, Madeleine, and I were scrubbing our hands before entering the NICU when I heard a baby wailing. I told Steve, "that sounds like Audrey" but her room was down the hall. Could I really be hearing her? Sure enough, when we got to her room she was laying in her heated bed screaming because she had just been given a bath. She was still a 2 pound squirt with under developed lungs, but that did not stop her from letting people know she was mad. Almost two years later she still posesses that same spunky quality and I love her for it (she just causes me some stress from time to time).

Back to our day at the zoo. Once Audrey let me know who was boss, the rest of the afternoon went smoothly. We had fun looking at the camels and monkeys, but the biggest hit were the bugs. I kept my distance. Here is a picture of the entire group of kiddos sitting in front of the famous dinosaur fountain (famous in Lincoln anyway).

I wish we had a video clip of this moment. For about 5 minutes we had the kids sitting there saying "cheese". It sound like a hum. We took several pictures, but this is the only one where they are all somewhat looking towards the camera. It was a wonderful day at the zoo.