Today, my sister, Jack and I went to the zoo. I wanted to expose Jack early since it's my favorite place to go. Okay, let's face it: I wanted to go since I hadn't been in almost two years.
The day was.....interesting. Not really bad. Not really good. Just interesting. It started out with coffee at Starbucks. The woman working must have been trying to milk the cow because it seriously took 20 minutes for our drinks. Then, getting on to the freeway and to the zoo was an experience. Some idiot getting on the freeway slammed on his brakes and so I had to do the same to avoid rear-ending him. Traffic was pretty much insane the entire way.
I knew right away it would be a bear (haha, bear, get it? It's an animal reference!) to find parking because the exit to get off at the zoo was backed up. It took a few minutes to make it to the parking lot and then another few, er.....20.....to realize there was absolutely no parking. We decided to drive another exit up the road and park at the transit center and take the train in. That was another fun adventure. Missed the turn, took forever to find a spot, blah blah blah.
Finally, we made it to the zoo and guess what? The line was incredibly long. It probably would have taken a good half hour to make it through the line and so I cheated and bought a year pass. Hey, as long as I use it 5 times, it wil pay for itself.
It's pretty funny that after all that excitement and time it took to get to the zoo, Jack slept almost the entire time. Maybe it was the noise or the lull of the stroller, but he slept. I enjoyed myself as much as I could while manuevering a stroller amongst the entire population of Portland. There were lots of new exhibits that I hadn't seen.
The biggest hurdle of the day? Feeding the boy. When he finally did wake up, I knew he would be starving. He was and so I found a place that was semi-discreet and nursed him. Don't worry people, I put a blanket over the girls so that I didn't flash the world. People walking by just saw my back but I am sure some people were able to figure out what I was doing.
I changed the wee one in the bathroom and then a few minutes later, he wanted to eat again! So we found another place to sit and nurse. My poor sister. She had to deal with all of this. She didn't complain one bit although I wouldn't have blamed her if she did. The second nursing didn't go so well. He flailed and screamed and so instead of fighting him and trying to wipe the spray of milk off his face, I gave him a bottle. I had packed some expressed milk JUST IN CASE. I always pack too much and I am glad I did this time.
We didn't finish the entire zoo. By the time all this happened, it was getting to be late and Jack was just not having it. Hey, I have a pass. I can go back anytime. Plus, we had to make it all the way back to the transit center and into the city.
The wee one and I finally made it back home around 6:00 and despite him sleeping the entire day, he went to bed at his regular time. Surprising!
I didn't take any pictures since I was focusing on not running into people's ankles or tripping over the stroller. Maybe next time!
All in all, the day wasn't a disaster but it wasn't perfect either. It's practice for other big outings that we will take in the future.
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