Pouting, the zoo, and cleaning

Today turned out to be a particularly trying day. It rained all day for starters, so there wasn't much to do. We had a couple of errands to run, so we decided to go to Market Mall. They have a little play center there that the girls have had fun on before. I sat down at a table with CeCe while the girls went to play and Julie went to Fabricland for a minute. We were barely there and Jorja was coming over to the table moping - 'I'm thirsty...Is it lunch time yet...I'm tired.' I kept telling her to go back and play. Finally she went back and then just kind of sat at the top of the slide area, slightly out of direct sight. After a while, she peeked around the corner, and started to come down the steps toward me. She was kind of pouting, and then she slipped on the stairs and fell on her butt. This was all the excuse she needed to burst into tears, flop down at the table and feel sorry for herself. Shortly after this, Ginny came over to investigate what was going on. Then Julie came back and all of us were sitting at the table. I explained what was going on, and we sent the girls back to play. Jorja continued moping around, so we packed them all up and went home. We gave her a time out in her room after lunch to think about things, and it was a bit better this afternoon, so hopefully we got through to her. Well, that wasn't very funny was it?

Yesterday we went to the zoo. It was a gorgeous day out, and we hadn't been in a couple of years. Ginny asks every day what kind of animals are at the zoo, so we thought we would finally go and show her. The first things we saw was the grizzly bear. This kind of freaked her out - she was pretty scared. We got her convinced nothing could hurt her, and then she had fun after that.

And we managed to keep out of the duck pond, so that was good. The last time we went, we only had Jorja, and we had stopped to feed the ducks. We left the stroller at the top of the hill, and forgot to put the brake on. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the stroller careening down the hill toward the water. It hit the bottom of the hill, ramped off some rocks, paused in the air for a moment, and then sank. The whole thing seemed to happen in slow motion, like it was right out of a Mr. Bean skit. Without thinking, I raced after it. I was balancing on some slippery, slimy rocks while trying to reach it. Yes, I fell in. Half way up to my knee in duck poop infested water. And it was early in the spring, so I was wearing jeans, socks and shoes. It was gross, to say the least. This time was much better. We only had to leave the area when the mother goose though we were getting a little too close to her young. We got out before things got ugly though. Our children won't have a fear of geese.

We had some friends over for supper on Saturday evening. Naturally we were running around trying to get the house cleaned up. Jorja asked me, "Dad, are you cleaning up because we're getting company?" Busted. It shouldn't be that obvious should it? Later.

My animal

This morning we attempted to go for a bike ride with the whole family. A while back, we had bought an attachment for Julie's bike where Jorja can ride behind her. It has handle bars, pedals, and one wheel, and attaches to the seat post of the big bike. Ginny rides in the seat on the back of my bike, and then I pull CeCe in the chariot. It turned out that there were some kinks to be worked out in the assembly if Jorja's bike attachment (by kinks I mean that after they took one corner, the trailer bike shifted so much that she was leaning something fierce). We were all helmeted up and the other two kids were loaded, so I just took Jorja's trailer off and got out her bike. Well, she's not really up to going anywhere too far too quickly. So Julie went for a ride by herself while I rode with Jorja and then I took the other two girls for a ride while Julie biked close to home with Jorja. CeCe really enjoyed the ride - she fell asleep. I just came in from the garage now, and I believe the kinks have been worked out, so we'll have to see when the sun shines again. Maybe we can make it as far as the park or something.

A few days ago, our super dandelion puller broke. I think maybe it has already done a lifetime worth of work, but we thought we would try taking it back anyway. We no longer had the receipt, but we gave it a whirl. We walked into Canadian Tire, I explained the issue, the clerk said that the Fiskar has a lifetime exchange warranty, so she went and got a new one off the shelf, and we were done. We were so impressed.

This evening Jorja was getting ready for bed, and I was teasing her saying I wanted to sleep with one of her stuffed animals (she has a Care Bear that she got when she was 18 months old and a panda bear she calls Bamboo that she must sleep with every night). I said I really wanted to sleep with Bamboo. She replied, "No Dad, Mommy is your animal." If you only knew Jorja, if you only knew... Later.

Circus

This afternoon, I took Jorja and Ginny to the Shrine Circus here in town. I only vaguely remember going to a circus once when I was a kid. I think they were probably a bit young - Jorja wasn't too bad, but it was a bit much for Ginny.

First of all, it was at 2:00 in the afternoon, so she is kind of tired at that time (we've been napping her every other day). We got there plenty early, but there was already a big line-up. We ran into someone that Jorja goes to preschool with, and his Dad gave me a free ticket, and preschoolers were free anyway, so the price was right. The line moved fairly quickly into the tent, but then we had to sit. We were about 20 minutes early, and then at about 5 to, they announced they were going to start later because there was still a big line up outside. So they didn't start till 2:15, and by that time, even Jorja was getting pretty antsy. Plus it was smoking hot in there. And kind of stinky. My guess is the elephants.

I thought cotton candy would be a nice treat. Apparently not. Ginny took one bite, and got the most revolted look on her face. I thought she was going to puke. Who knew?

Before the show started, they were offering elephant rides (we didn't go). Watching the elephants circle was entertaining for a bit, but the thrill of watching these lethargic, old elephants walk around in circles wore off far before the show started.

We were talking before it started, and Ginny was asking what kind of animals there were going to be. I had read the program, so I knew there would be dogs, horses and elephants. I told her there would be puppies. "Oh," she said, "What else? Chickens?" No, no chickens. That would have been entertaining though.

It was kind of hard for Ginny to see, and she can only sit still on my lap for so long. In the end, she was just as happy dancing in front of her chair to the music. To make a long story short, we ended up leaving at the intermission. Maybe we'll try again in a few years. Later.