Zoo-mazing
We went to the Zoo today. We saw Lions, Tigers, and Bears (oh BOY did we see bears!) Zebras, Gazelles, Tapirs, Elephants, Monkeys, Orangutans, Eagles, River Otters, Giraffes (we even fed them!) Elk, Mountain Goats, and a really big snake, among countless other animals. We started our adventure at 9:30am on a cool, overcast day - perfect time and weather for getting great glimpses of animals on the move, up close and personal. And Bobbin walked everywhere we went, which explains why she consumed the following throughout the day after having 6-pancakes (mini pancakes but still), 2-servings of oranges, a multi-vitamin gummi bear and 2 glasses of Watermelon juice for breakfast
- at least a dozen large strawberries
- 3 large slices of cheddar cheese
- 1 serving of watermelon
- half a baggie of cheese crackers
- 2 hotdogs (sans bun)
- 2 servings of large green seedless grapes
- half a dozen peeled baby carrots (raw)
- a serving of blueberries
- 1 and 1/2 cobs of corn
- 2 oz of "steak on a stick"
- several glasses of water
Talk about well balanced; I think we hit on all the food groups at least twice today and the only colour of the food rainbow we missed was purple.
She also had NO nap. At all. Up at 7am and didn't stop moving until 8pm. I ended up taking a nap but she opted to "play quietly in the living room with Daddy". Well, ok then.
So she's out like a light right now after having a bath, a story, and hitting the potty. Ooooh boy, I don't have to tell you that was not a pleasant aroma after all that stuff. I don't know if Bobbin did it or Tim did but I went back in a few minutes later and actually found the fan switched on!
I got my 30 minutes of exercise in on the elliptical; that's just the exercise I measured. I figure I got much more than that in actuality between the walk around the zoo, the rousing game of "EMERGENCY" Bobbin roped me into outside on her climber as we waited for dinner, and the breathless game of soccer we got into after that.
EMERGENCY was entirely of Bobbin's own making and entailed throwing Kitty off the top of her climber and yelling HELP HELP GET THE AMBULANCE CALL ONE ONE ONE" (she's still learning about 911 and doesn't always get the digits right). Then Bobbin would put her firefighter hat on (backwards; ie she'd wear it like a "baseball" hat) and slide down the slide yelling WOOOOoooooo WOOOOOooooo at the top of her lungs. Then she'd jump down from the bottom of the slide and, with hands making steering motions, would run at full speed around and around the climber and back field until she arrived at the injured party. She would scoop Kitty up and drive her back to the hospital at the top of the climber by climbing up the slide. There, she would take off her firefighter hat and become Doctor Bobbin and would get to work saving kitty's life by listening to her heart and breathing, giving her needles in her abdomen, checking her ears, and taking her temperature and blood pressure. Kitty was almost a goner there for a bit - her first temp reading on the Fisher-Price thermometer was 45, according to Doctor Bobbin. Her second one was thankfully, a much more reasonable 2 miles and Doctor Bobbin was visibly relieved to note the improvement. We're so glad Kitty finally came back to us. Alas, she'd recover only to get thrown off the top of the climber once again and have the whole scenario repeated. Sometimes the effort was a rescue attempt to get Kitty before the Dragons could breathe fire on her. Sometimes there was actually a fire and we all had to gather up at the top of the climber to escape the burning trees and destruction.
When the imagination games finally wound down, we played soccer up and down the hill, Bobbin doing most of the running as I was instructed not to try to take the ball away.
But it was all goodness. We had a great day. Zed and her parents joined us at the Zoo and Bobbin and Zed seemed to have so much fun together. Until we were in the cave in the Zoomazium and Bobbin was explaining to us that it was were Dinosaurs live; I asked without thinking, "Really? What sound do they make?" and Bobbin belted out a ROOOOAAAAARRRRRRRR that had me holding my ears in this enclosed little cavern, and that sent poor Zed into sobs of fright. Bobbin asked what happened when she saw Zed crying, and was quite concerned for her but I thought it best to just tell her that Zed was feeling tired and wanted to go home. Best not to reveal the fact to Bobbin that she has the power to scare other children with her monster scary godzilla voice. She doesn't need to have that knowledge yet.
After we got home and I napped, Uncle Rich arrived to help Tim with the wood that we finally got around to getting cut up into 2x4s from that tree that fell over 2 years ago. (We're a little slow :-), and he stayed for dinner. Then we had a rousing game of "Hungry Hungry Hippos". Bobbin explained the whole game to a patiently listening Uncle Rich, telling him which button to press when, and what you were supposed to do when the marbles were in the middle. Then Tim joined the fun, and I managed to catch a couple of pictures that I'll have to post later. She loves that game almost as much as her Elefun game from Aunt Patti and Uncle Les last year. What kid wouldn't love Elefun: a plastic elephant that blows little cloth butterflies out his plastic trunk as a fan spins in his butt. The kids run around with little butterfly nets trying to catch them. The one with the most butterflies wins, but we actually haven't gotten to the point of caring who wins. It's the act of playing that is the reward. Hungry Hungry Hippos has the same thing going on; who has the most marbles is not as much fun as all the silliness that ensues as your trying to get your hippo to make a grab for one, and pushing the buttons to release all the marbles at once!
Tomorrow it's back to work and back to school for all. Bobbin's supposed to move from "Early Preschool" to "Big Preschool". We'll see how it goes.
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