We Went to the Zoo

Back in March I purchased a Groupon deal for our local zoo.  With the move, we put off using it even though it expired at the end of August.  So when Lily, Ben, and I decided it was time for Lily to try to quit thumbsucking (again... this has been happening off and on for the last 2 years) I told her that if she could go a whole week without sucking her thumb that we would take her to the zoo.  So we ordered some thumb guards off of amazon, tried them out, decided that we could sew up more efficient ones (Ben sewed them, not me) and she tried so hard to quit.  She had tons of encouragement from everyone and the Tooth Fairy even talked to me on the phone and left Lily a fairy dust smothered letter telling us all about how she doesn't bring money to kids who still suck their thumbs.  Lily freaked out.

 

Lily's worked hard.  One of the rules was that if she sucked her thumb, she'd lose all of her days and she'd have to start over to get 7 days in a row of no thumbsucking.  We had to start over a few times and it absolutely crushed Lily.  She still doesn't trust herself to not wear her thumb guard, but I know it's only a matter of time when that instinct is behind her.  She's almost gone 2 weeks and we're so proud of her.  So today we went to the zoo.

 

The giraffes were first.  They were galloping around in circles and it was probably my favorite part of the day.  It was so cool.

The Lions were taking a nap.

 

 

The lioness woke up her hubby by smacking him on the head.  Bad move.  We saw quite the little lion fight complete with roaring.  It got my heartbeat going a little bit.  Needless to say, he was not pleased to be woken up.

 

Then she stuck out her tongue at him.

 

And they gave each other the silence treatment.

 

Ben told me that this is how I act when he tries waking me up.

 

 

 

 

 

Mama and baby.

 

Ben told me to kiss the chimp.  Lily, who likes to mother me more than my own mother, was completely disgusted by that idea and tried dragging me away and yelling, "Nooooo!  Eww!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids' favorite part was probably the dinosaur exhibit.

 

To encourage Lily to stop sucking her thumb, I'd let her look at as many pictures of the zoo online as she wanted.  This included pictures of the animatronic dinosaurs.  Yesterday Lily told me that she didn't want to see the dinosaurs at the zoo because they might eat her.  So I told her all about how dinosaurs died a long long time ago and that they wouldn't be real.  She perked up and kept saying, "I can't wait to play with the dead dinosaurs!"

 

Okay.  Creeeeepy.

 

 

 

Proactive model

 

 

 

Through the whole exhibit my mom and I were talking about how much this made us want to watch Jurassic Park.  My mom kept joking, "Must go faster!"  Then at the exit, a jeep with this picture behind it was practically glowing with irony.  It was a perfect opportunity for my parents to reenact one of the scenes.  Although I did tell my dad that in order for it to be accurate he would need a broken leg and a torn open shirt...

 

 

 

The aviary just about killed me it was so warm and muggy.  But they had these huge fans in the floor that kept me alive.  Lily loved them too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skyler pretending to be a dinosaur. 

One word:  ferocious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the carousel was done we decided that sugar was a must.  Ben knows the way to my heart and got me some cotton candy.  He got himself a frozen lemonade and my parents got the kids some ice cream.  Ella ate all of it.

 

Ella sadly didn't take her morning nap on the way to the zoo like I was hoping, but she was such a trooper.  The only time she cried today was when we ran out of ice cream.  She may not look like me, but she is SO me.

 

 

 

We only made it through half of the zoo, but the kids don't know that.  I'm glad that we were able to celebrate Lily's achievement and that my parents were able to last minute come with us since they were nervous that our zoo trip would be a repeat of IKEA.  But bless the NC zoo because it was mostly wooded and had tons of benches so that this 36 week pregnant girl survived.  Although all the day's walking started up horrible contractions that left me cursing every bump on the drive home. 

So thank you, Lily, for taking us to the zoo!  I think the Tooth Fairy might be leaving you another glittery note tonight under your pillow...