Is It Time?

No. It really wasn't time, but we did it anyway. And that was probably a mistake.

I don't know why, but I had my heart set on taking the kids to the zoo last Saturday. I'd been thinking about it for weeks and Will and I kept talking about how it'd been so long. He even remembered that "we haven't been to the zoo since we saw the Christmas lights!" We were just hoping we'd have a warm-ish weekend so we could get out in the fresh air and see some animals.

Well, it wasn't warm. At all. In fact, my car said it was 28 degrees while we were driving there and just about 34 on the way home! But the sun was warm and it wasn't windy so only in the shade was it noticeably frigid.

We saw the polar bears (out and about - above), the giraffes (indoors and up close), the wolves (out and about - below), and the hippos (hanging out in a warm indoor bath).

Oh, and the penguins of course! And while we were watching, some ducks flew right above our heads and landed in the water in the penguin exhibit. Do you notice Sophie's hands below? I swear I am not that bad of a mother. The girl was making me crazy with her refusal to leave her gloves on. She pulled them off at least 10 times and threw a tantrum every time I put them back on her. Her poor hands were so cold and red by the end of our ~45 minutes there.

Poor Will got the shaft of the visit because so much of my time was focused on calming down the unreasonable child who brought lots of stares and looks in our direction. :( I promised to bring him back by himself sometime soon. And I need to take Sophie out by herself a little more too so I can really work with her on behavior in public while she's in the midst of these tantrums.

Often, I come home from outings like this thinking "What was I thinking?" But thankfully, in this case, we'd stopped at Wixey Bakery on the way there and picked up a half dozen doughnuts to cap off our outing.

So that made it all better. :) Will told me "We need to do this more often! Doughnuts are the best dessert I've ever had!" (Keep in mind, he's a very in-the-moment child. Everything is "the best ever" when he's eating/doing it. :) He'll tell me the same thing about dinner several days a week... and then not eat the main dish!)

Come on spring! Warm up already!