What Weekends Were Made For

I started the first draft f this post by explaining a lot about the background leading up to today's events. Then I realized I was even boring myself with all that rambling, so I've decided to give you the short version of the story.

1. We had plans to go to the zoo today, all four of us

2. We suddenly found ourselves with 'stroller issues' and were struggling to find a workable way for The Cat to be there with us.

3. I started thinking outside the box and found a babysitter for her instead.

4. Big Chief, Little Cub and myself all had a wonderful (if cold and rainy) day out together, without our fantastic little monster having to deal with his kid sister stealing some of the limelight.

Here are some of the highlights from our Super Saturday

Little Cub was more interested in climbing around in the playground area than seeing the animals. Defeated the purpose of being at a zoo, really, but what the H....we were having fun.

Then he decided to start diving and slam-dunking himself flat onto the ground. Each full-body smack sounded excruciating to me, but he couldn't get enough of it. Luckily, Big Chief was quick enough with the camera to get some hilarious shots.

Our prince was happy enough to sit on a throne...

...but nearly peed his pants with excitement when he discovered the tigers right behind him.

Then it was off to the carousel for some silliness

And to finish the day in style, mini cars. It seemed we should have thought to explain to him that these were NOT the same as bumper cars .... while Big Chief was trying to snap pictures, LC was trying to use him as target practice. Daddy and his shins narrowly escaped injury on more than one occasion.

Sometimes, the cars just weren't fast enough, and I had to join in on the fun by pushing him around.

The best part of the day was, we consciously made an effort not to 'require' anything of LC. Short of stopping him from climbing into the camel enclosure, or refusing to let him 'help' the baboons by throwing pine cones at them, he pretty much got to experience a Rule Free day from mom and dad, with the added bonus of undivided attention. We got to put aside 'parenting' for a while (aka disciplining and structure) and just have fun. Ahhhhh. Just what weekends were made for!

PS - The entire Tribe owes a great big 'THANK YOU!' to darling Auntie Supernatural for providing her babysitting services and making the day possible. We couldn't have done it without you! xoxoxoxoxoxox