Zoo day we'd like to forget

There are days and weekends where you are so happy to be with your children and every moment feels like an amazing memory being made. You never want the weekend to end and you don't want the kids to go to bed because they are being so good and you are having so much fun with them. This weekend, was not that kind of weekend. This was a "It is Saturday morning at 10:30 and I am already looking forward to going to work on Monday" kind of weekend.

Yesterday we planned to enjoy the unseasonable warm (70s) weather and enjoy the Zoo with our friends, the M family. We haven't seen them in a while and Dono and Ian love playing together so what could go wrong.

Well to start off, Reese was her normal, clingy, not wanting to stay in the stroller self. So instead, I had to hold her the whole time. Which means she bosses me around and I can't visit with people or feel my arms. So that was fun for me.

Donovan was a perfect little happy boy....until we asked him to go to the bathroom so he didn't have an accident while he was playing. And that boy did not want to go to the bathroom. And he told us that 1,000 times. While crying. And while peeing a healthy amount (see, he told us he didn't have to go). And that was where the day took a nose dive.

So then we went to go see the elephants, hippos and rhinos, Reese's favorites. But Donovan wouldn't stop crying. So he and I stayed back until he calmed down so as to not ruin Ian and his family's good time. So 10 minutes later, we went to go find everyone. I texted Tom, who had gone ahead with Reese, and he brought her back to me because she had been crying ever since she was forced away from me by her horrible father.

Dono was happy when we met up with Tom and Reese, and then Reese was happy. Then Dono started whining he wanted to go home. Then more Dono crying, then both kids crying because they both want me to hold them and I can't.

So we leave after almost 2 hours at the zoo and having seen not much at all. I was bummed. I considered putting them in a taxi and sending them home so Tom and I could enjoy the day, but I didn't want to go to jail so I didn't.

We did manage to get some pictures of the day.

The fun continued after we got home too. Lots of whining and crying, a short nap for Reese, Reese knocking over the humidifier in Donovan's room, driving to Target and hearing a weird noise, only to look in the review mirror and see her snack trap bouncing in the street (the snack trap Tom put on top of my car when we got home from the Zoo so he could take Reese out of her car seat, but then forgot about). Then there was the Target trip with Reese where she screamed and cried 75% of the time and also wanted me to hold her instead of riding in the cart. Then there was bath time. Dono wouldn't share, so he got taken out early. Then he kept trying to come back in and sit on my lap and anytime he walked in the bathroom door Reese would practically dive out of the tub onto my lap, soaking wet, so that he couldn't sit on my lap. She did this several times. At this point I am soaked, and laughing at the ridiculousness of the day, and also, drinking wine, so things at least a little more tolerable. Then Reese spilled my glass of wine. I mean, we could not catch a break.

But alas, today is a new day, and we talked my parents in to taking the rug rats for a little while so Tom and I could have a break and realize that we really do love our children, even when they have rotten days. That and tomorrow is a work day so things are looking up!