Yesterday: donut with sprinkles, zoo, Mexican food, Walgreens, detour to collect pinecones, temperature approaching 70, sunshine all day
Will's loves to stop and watch Phineas, the rhino. The first time we saw him, he was only three days old, and it was Will's and my first day without others with us. Will said, "Mama, my baby rhinocerous sure is getting big!" 
We had a lot of fun on such a beautiful day. I pointed out some "unique animals" to Will in a way he didn't understand . . . "Ah! Will look! Over there. See those?" He looked and looked but didn't see the animals in the cage. "Look, Will. It's an orange conicus! Wow!" He still didn't get it. "How 'bout those? Do you see those? The brown picnic tablicus?" Finally he understood I was being silly and he just laughed and laughed, then found another one for me "Look, Mama! Isn't that a nice lighticus!" We had fun being silly like that the rest of the day. It also meant I had to read the scientific names of all the animals after that. His favorite to remember: Bison bison bison. Usually we are at the zoo with the family or even friends, but this time it was just the two of us. Rather than rushing from animal to animal or having to chase after kids, we stopped and read most of the info boards. The thing that he kept asking about was what endanged animals were. At the gift shop, we found a book that has kept his attention, but also mad him sad (the snakeskin boots, leopard jackets, deforestation.) Nothing made his as sad as when I read the lion-board. "Mama, what is prey? What is a kill" I explained to him that lions eat other animals. As we stood in front of the zoo lions, we could see zebras and kudu just beyond them. The exhibit has moats between the animals, but you can't see them, so it looks like a savannah with elephants, giraffes, warthogs, zebras, kudus, ostriches, and lions seeming to be in the same area. Will burst into sobs with huge tears when I told him sometimes lions eat zebras. I finally calmed him down by telling him we would go find a zoo-keeper who could tell him what these zoo-lions ate. He didn't believe me when I said those lions didn't eat zebras. Luckily, as we turned the corner, a zookeeper was coming out of the same area. Will asked if he could go talk to that stranger, and I said yes. So he asked her what the lions ate and she was so kind and patient, explaining until he no longer had questions. Those lions eat deer and cow bones, and ground meat. Will and I later joked about the lions eating hamburgers and liking them really rare. Another bunch of questions came when we were looking at the snakes and spiders -- explaining which were poisonous or not. I read the info about the brown recluse spider and it explained that this was not one we wanted to be bitten by, and it liked dark places. Knowing Will and his fears, I tried to find the happy medium between telling him the truth, but not bringing on nightmares. When we were leaving that part of the zoo, he started putting his hands in his jacket pockets, and just froze. "What's the matter, Will?" "Mama, I think my pockets are dark..."
We had a lot of fun on such a beautiful day. I pointed out some "unique animals" to Will in a way he didn't understand . . . "Ah! Will look! Over there. See those?" He looked and looked but didn't see the animals in the cage. "Look, Will. It's an orange conicus! Wow!" He still didn't get it. "How 'bout those? Do you see those? The brown picnic tablicus?" Finally he understood I was being silly and he just laughed and laughed, then found another one for me "Look, Mama! Isn't that a nice lighticus!" We had fun being silly like that the rest of the day. It also meant I had to read the scientific names of all the animals after that. His favorite to remember: Bison bison bison. Usually we are at the zoo with the family or even friends, but this time it was just the two of us. Rather than rushing from animal to animal or having to chase after kids, we stopped and read most of the info boards. The thing that he kept asking about was what endanged animals were. At the gift shop, we found a book that has kept his attention, but also mad him sad (the snakeskin boots, leopard jackets, deforestation.) Nothing made his as sad as when I read the lion-board. "Mama, what is prey? What is a kill" I explained to him that lions eat other animals. As we stood in front of the zoo lions, we could see zebras and kudu just beyond them. The exhibit has moats between the animals, but you can't see them, so it looks like a savannah with elephants, giraffes, warthogs, zebras, kudus, ostriches, and lions seeming to be in the same area. Will burst into sobs with huge tears when I told him sometimes lions eat zebras. I finally calmed him down by telling him we would go find a zoo-keeper who could tell him what these zoo-lions ate. He didn't believe me when I said those lions didn't eat zebras. Luckily, as we turned the corner, a zookeeper was coming out of the same area. Will asked if he could go talk to that stranger, and I said yes. So he asked her what the lions ate and she was so kind and patient, explaining until he no longer had questions. Those lions eat deer and cow bones, and ground meat. Will and I later joked about the lions eating hamburgers and liking them really rare. Another bunch of questions came when we were looking at the snakes and spiders -- explaining which were poisonous or not. I read the info about the brown recluse spider and it explained that this was not one we wanted to be bitten by, and it liked dark places. Knowing Will and his fears, I tried to find the happy medium between telling him the truth, but not bringing on nightmares. When we were leaving that part of the zoo, he started putting his hands in his jacket pockets, and just froze. "What's the matter, Will?" "Mama, I think my pockets are dark..." After we picked up the little kids from Mothers day out, we headed home. The kids played while I did a few things, then I helped Will with his Valentine's for his party. Last night, we also headed to WalMart to pick up some diapers. The little ones prefer to walk around, but I didn't have the patience for that. I finally got Maddie to quit crying by setting a box in the cart and telling her it was her Princess Throne. (One day this week, I asked Maddie what her name was and she said "Princess!") She LOVED sitting on the throne, and then Ben had the idea to have a footstool, too. That's what you see here.
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