His parents are going to be gone for 4 entire days! GG is in charge. (sort of)
I decided we would go to the zoo since he likes it so much. The zoo opens at 10 am. Parents have left the house at 7:30am. At 8:00, I received a text from my daughter telling me to make sure to bring Michael’s Owl backpack as there is an attachment in the back that I can hold on to if he decides to walk instead of sit in the stroller. Good to know!
Stroller, Check. Owl, Check. Water, Check. Pass, Check. Looks as if we are ready to head out.
“Ready to go to the Zoo Michael?”
“Yes, comeon GG, go.”
I ask Siri to ‘show me the way to the zoo’ and we head out. My thought was to get there when it opens as maybe it wouldn’t be so crowded. WRONG!!!. It was Field Trip day for every school in the surrounding area! Everywhere I looked there were busloads of kids and chaperones. We at least could go in through the ‘season’ pass area. No waiting. I received our day pass and was told to keep it handy as there were discounts available for members. Yippee!
Michael has his Owl on and I am pushing the stroller. Thank goodness I left my purse in the car and only took my wallet. One less thing to keep track of. So picture this. Toddler with the backpack, and me pushing an empty stroller which is now ‘back’ heavy. I had put our water bottles and my wallet in the mesh bag attached to the handles. Every time I let go of the handle, the stroller tips backwards and falls to the ground.
We wend our way through the ‘stroller’ path. All of the buses are full of school aged kids so no strollers are on the path. Easy peasy trip. Our first stop is Reggie the Alligator. He is a VERY large dude. Michael is checking him out when we encounter our first PACK of kids. They begin to swarm around the exhibit. I pick Michael up so that he can still see Reggie and slowing back away,stroller in tow.
Wow, that was exciting. We head off to the next exhibit: The Meerkats. Cute little guys. We are enjoying watching the 3 little guys sitting on the big rock when I hear the thundering of little feet and screams of joy as another WAVE of children head our way. I grab the kid and say let’s go.
The Flamingos are next which are one of my favorites. Michael can’t quite say Flamingo but he has Meerkats down perfectly. He didn’t want to leave when the crowd gathered so we endured the pressing, jostling and pushing. We were rewarded with the birds running about and flapping their wings. A joyous sight.
I spotted the tram stating and got in line but my little man said, “NO, NO GG, we walk”. Of course since he is in charge, we continued to walk through the zoo.
The Reptile area was next. Oh man. Snakes, lizards, turtles, tortoises, iguanas, and some I don’t know the names of. Good thing they were behind glass. Watching the water turtles swim was fun. Michael got a kick out of those.
Michael decides to take a break and sit on a bench. He points to the stroller and says, “FOOD”. Uh Oh. Definitely no food there. I hadn’t even thought about grabbing something to nosh on. Water was my main focus. I frantically look around and see ‘Soft Pretzels’. Yeah, that’s a great snack for a Toddler right?
Here’s where the ‘pass’ comes in handy. I got a discount on the pretzel! Can you say SALTY? Had to brush/pick off the salt to make it edible. Michael took the pieces that I handed him and brushed them too. Great, now he is going to think that is how one eats a soft pretzel.
No lions, tigers or bears this trip. We are 2 plus hours into our walk and we are both getting tired. We head back to the front. We say good by to the flamingos, one last stop at the Meerkats, a wave to Reggie and a last look at the T-Rex dinosaur replica which Michael explained to me was a dinosaur, ‘roar’.
Unhook the backpack, get child into car seat, fold stroller (not quite but did get it into the car) start the car and head home. Little man is fast asleep within 5 minutes. Wish I could take a nap.
Optimistically I think; A successful start to my 4 days of toddler-sitting. Wonder how the rest of the time will go……