Giraffes and sparkly shoes

I don't know if anyone else actually enjoys reading about the antics of my children, but I know that if I don't write things down, I will never remember.  Others told me that, but like a lot of others, I'm sure, I thought my mind was a steel trap.  I thought that the stories were too good to forget.  They are my children, afterall.  I should be able to remember these priceless things they say and do, right?  Well, it turns out after having kids, my mind is more like spaghetti.  So, now I try to write things down.


Like last Thursday when we went to the zoo.  According to the weather predictions, rain was to return Friday after something like 85 dry days, which by the way, must be a record.  (And yes, the rain has returned now).  Anyway, I thought going to the zoo would be perfect before the rain hit.  So off we went.  It was quite chilly, so we pulled out the coats, hats and mittens and went on our animal hunt.  We actually managed to see the majority of the zoo, which we don't usually do.  And a ton of animals were out, which is always fun!  The black bears were close to the edge of their enclosure, so we got to see them up close.  And the orangutan came right up to the window where we were!  Two highlights, at least for me.  :)  Honeygirl was pretty excited because the zoo had already started to prep for the annual Zoo Lights Festival - meaning there were Christmas lights everywhere!  It was fun to talk about the different colors of lights, as well as different animal displays.  Like the giant peacock made of lights on top of the insect zoo.




We had seen almost everything we wanted to see, and had even enjoyed our picnic lunch while overlooking the elephants.  The only things left on Honeygirl's list of must-see animals yesterday were the giraffes and the tigers.  So off we headed to the giraffes.  As we stood above, looking at the giraffes, Honeygirl stuck her foot through the railing.  That prompted a discussion on how it's not a good idea to stick our feet out into the giraffe enclosure.  However, in the meantime, Sweet Pea decided to copy her sister as she often does.  She stuck her foot through the railing and kicked hard.  Well, her little pink sparkly shoes weren't on quite tight enough.  And off it flew.  Sweet Pea didn't seem to care in the least.  However, Honeygirl was distraught.  She was sad for her sister, and terrified the giraffes would eat the shoe.   Sometimes there is a zookeeper outside talking about the giraffes, but as luck would have it (or not), no one was to be found.  So I gathered up my tearful Honeygirl and oblivious Sweet Pea and headed to the next exhibit.  We did eventually find someone who worked at the zoo, and Honeygirl was rather frantic.  "Mom!  There's a zookeeper!  Can he get Sweet Pea's shoe?  Talk to him!"

After explaining our conundrum, he graciously offered to walk back to the giraffes with us and see if the shoe was reachable.  Otherwise, he said the zookeepers go into the exhibits at night to check for stray items like pink sparkly shoes.  Fortunately, the shoe was close enough to the edge of the exhibit for a zookeeper to reach it.  Sweet Pea still didn't seem to care that she only had one shoe on, so the reunion didn't really matter to her.  But Honeygirl lit up like a Christmas tree.  She was super relieved that the giraffes didn't have a pink sparkly meal.

Ironically, Sweet Pea has now been the one to excitedly tell people that her "shoe fell."  "Giraffe."  Go figure.  At any rate, it seems that we will carry on with our unique adventures.  Wouldn't want life to get too dull....



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