A Trip to the Zoo

Today we went to Baby Kyle’s 1st birthday.  It was being held at Happy Hollow Park and Zoo.  It took us forever to get out of the house for some reason-mostly spent gathering up all the gear for a short trip out with a toddler.  At also at the last minute, Brandon decided he did not like the shoes I put him in.  Granted, they did not match his outfit, but they looked cuter than the other shoes.  He grabbed the shoes that did match his outfit better and said, “Choose” and then started taking off the ones he was wearing.  Ok, I guess we have a little fashionista!  So with the shoes changed, we were off. 

I finally got Brandon strapped into the car seat, when he was saying, “spider, spider” and whining a bit.  When I looked down to see what the fuss was about, there was this little piece of white lint that had floated into the car, which I guess could be mistaken for a spider.  Luckily it was not a spider, because I don’t like them either.  I was hoping that I would raise Brandon to get rid of spiders for me, but turns out he’s just as afraid of them as I am.  Oh well.  So we started driving towards the zoo, but I had forgotten my cell phone!   Agh…so had to turn around and go get it.  Finally, we were on our way to the zoo, in San Jose.  Zoo in San Jose?!  I never even knew this place existed!  Luckily GPS did.  So we got there, parked and then Jennifer and Jesselyn drove up!  What timing, considering my intention was to arrive 15 minutes earlier but with all of the delays back at home.  Then as I was getting Brandon into his stroller, we saw Michelle and Ted, who had brought the cake and a huge gift – it almost filled up the entire trunk.  We all walked toward the entrance to the zoo, then saw Robert and Julie about to take a walk.  We found the party, Kyle was all ready to go in his 1st birthday outfit.  There were balloons, even a talking Elmo balloon, and bubbles from a bubble machine!  It was great.  Brandon was offered an animal cup – he took one then started to take another!  He got the tiger cup.  Karen had even rented some wagons, like the ones Brandon has at school.  He wanted to play with them, but I wasn’t ready to chase him around in the wagon, so I put my foot down – behind one of the wheels.  He was able to move it just a little bit forward, but not much more back, so he kept looking at the tire and trying to see what the problem was.  Finally, he gave up and went back to the table to eat.  We had Vietnamese sandwhiches, spring rolls, egg rolls, and musube.  There were little packs of carrots for the kids and adults, I suppose, and packages of apples.  Small animal bubble packs were on the table – Bonnie was able to help Brandon blow some bubbles of his own!  But then he tried holding it on his own and ended up spilling it all over himself.  Luckily it is mostly soap, so not too much to worry about.  Then we decided to give him an unopened bottle.  “Open, open,” he asked, but I told him we could not open the bottle.  We thought it would be safe giving him the sealed plastic-wrapped container.  Too bad we were wrong, he wrenched it open and again, spilled bubbles all over himself.  Too strong for his own good.  We sang “Happy Birthday” to Kyle, and the other kids took a picture, but Brandon was not interested, he wanted to look at the Viking ship.  I was fearing the lone poopy diaper change – especially with all the activity, thinking that Brandon would turn around and get poop all over!  Luckily Karen knows about active boys and diaper changes and watched the head while I took care of the tail.  He did great!  Karen’s little niece, Hannah, passed out favors: little shortbread cookies shaped as “1”s and for the kids little stuffed animals – I told him to get a monkey, since that was the only animal name he could say.  They also had zebras, giraffes, tigers and elephants.   Finally I succumbed to the wagon.  I put him in it and wheeled him around, like when he is being isolated at school and can’t sit in the buggy with the other kids.  Jesselyn wanted to play too, so we stuck both kids in the wagon. 

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 Then there were various combinations of kids in and out pushing and riding.  Jennifer even took both for a little stroll!  It was a good effort by both kids, at one point Jesselyn was steering and Brandon was pushing from the rear.  A good lesson in teamwork. 

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We took a short walk to where the park and zoo meet, and through the gate, there was the Cabybara.  According to Robert, it looked like a big rat.  He wasn’t too far off in his description.  Brandon wasn’t that excited either, so we walked to the jaguar area.  There was one in the pen, but he was sleeping.  There was another family there who was also looking for the big cat, so while I was pointing out to Brandon, they also saw it.  They then proceeded to plop their 3-4 year kid right in Brandon’s line of sight.  Great, so he sees the backside of a chunky girl instead of the sleeping jaguar.  Let’s go – good thing Dave wasn’t here otherwise we may have had trouble at the zoo.  So after walking a little further down, we saw what I was looking for – monkeys!  There were two little Capuchin monkeys.  Where the stroller was, there was some foliage in the way, so he couldn’t see a good view of them.  He knew what they were but needed a better vantage point, so I took him out of the stroller.  It was great, because then he could see what I saw!  The monkeys weren’t really doing much, but it was great for him to see them live!  After seeing them, it was time to go.  However, Brandon got used to me carrying him and did NOT want to go back to the stroller.  Kicking and Screaming is not just a movie.  And this is what I had been dreading all day long.  I couldn’t get him back in the stroller on the first or second attempt.  Finally, got the legs in, pulled up the center strap so he couldn’t escape and pinned him down.  There was no way I could carry him and push the stroller the rest of the way back to the car.  And I told him this.  After getting strapped up, he complained a little, then was ok until we got back to the car.  Again, with a little protest, did not want to get into the car seat.  I knew he would rest well once we just started driving.  It was 230pm, and he hadn’t had his nap yet.  That’s a pretty long time for him.  Two minutes later, as we were headed to the freeway, I was right.  He was out cold, all limbs relaxed. 

Kenny had called and wanted to see if we wanted to go to dinner.  I called him back to leave a message.  Getting home was uneventful, I did manage to push the empty stroller and carry Brandon and get to the front door.  Just then, I was getting a phone call.  I thought it was Kenny calling back, but it was actually Bonnie.  She was calling because we didn’t get to say goodbye because they were helping load the gifts while I made a last minute decision to go look at the animals.  So she wanted to make sure we got home safely.  How sweet!  She could tell I was huffing and puffing trying to get the stroller in and put Brandon down.  She told me to call her if we needed anything 🙂  Thank you!  It’s always great to have such caring friends. 

Since Brandon went to sleep and it was my only chance, I decided to try and sleep too.  Kenny called back and we were going to try to coordinate dinner – told him it would be at least 2 hours for Brandon to nap!  So we set up plans for later.  Brandon and I both needed a nap and seems like we woke up at the same time!  We played a bit and at first I thought we could go out, it shouldn’t be that difficult, but after a short crying spell, decided to pick something easy for dinner and have Kenny and Rachel come over.  So the got some schwarma and we all ate at the table.  They only stayed for a short while, but during that time, we got a “Ray-chel” out of Brandon!  Yay!!  We’ve waited so long for this event!  For the longest time, Brandon only knew “Nenny” of Rachel and Kenny.  So we got both now!  Good job, Brandon.  The usual nightly routine went smoothly – bath, brushing the teeth, mum-mum, the water bottle and the “night-night”s.  Still Adi and Papa are the frontrunners.  Followed closely by Mamma and Daddy.  And with the fun-filled day over, Brandon went night-night.