Day 1,258 - Ethan Runs Away. Then He Runs Away Some More. After That, He Runs Away Some More. In Between All of That Running Away, We Enjoy the Zoo

Ethan is three years old. That is a statement of fact. Another statement of fact is that he is an extremely independent child and as such definitely has a mind of his own. In other words, it would not be a farfetched statement to say that Ethan is a handful. That is extremely evident these days whenever I take him to a public place like the grocery store or Walmart or in the case of yesterday, the Zoo!

Not sure I've ever actually referenced "The Jersey Shore" before...

Ethan's independent streak was pretty evident early on in our zoo trip. In fact, it technically hadn't even begun yet as I was waiting in the zoo office for our new membership card. The second that the worker handed me my new card, Ethan was out the door and sprinting through the lobby of the building towards the zoo entrances. In my haste to catch him, I never even scanned my card for admittance to the Zoo yesterday. So, I guess we were not technically supposed to be inside the Zoo yesterday but please, no one tell the Zoo.

Once I finally caught up to the little man, we wandered to the Polar Bear enclosure and then headed toward the Chimpanzee exhibit. On that little stretch of walkway was where Ethan's independent streak again manifested itself as he was much more interested in watching big construction equipment work on some new exhibits rather than continuing our walk to the Chimpanzees. Once I finally convinced him it was ok to start walking again, he was off like a rocket, leaving me with no alternative other than to run after him again.

After catching him this time, there was finally a brief moment of Zoo-time fun as we got to come face-to-face with a baby Chimpanzee. Actually, there was glass between us but that was pretty much it. One awesome selfie later and Ethan was on his way once again. Therefore, I proceeded to hurry after him all the way to the Tiger enclosure where he finally stopped, wanting to be lifted up to sneak a peek at the sleeping tigers within. After that, you guessed it; he ran up the path with me following suit until he finally saw fit to stop at the snake house.

After our visit to the snake house, I decided it was time to have a very clear conversation with my son making it known that if he ran away again, I was prepared to leave the zoo immediately. Ethan, for his part, took those words to heart for at least a little bit. We even made it all the way through the Australia exhibit before he ran away again. At least the next time he ran away was due to him spotting the playground. Therefore, I let him play for about 15 minutes while I chilled for a bit before Ethan suddenly declared that he needed to go potty. Lucky for us, the closest potty was just a short walk away in the Discovery Barn.

After voiding his bladder, Ethan was ready to explore the Discovery Barn. He was especially ready to explore the two-story slide that inhabits the Discovery Barn. His first couple of trips down it went ok but on subsequent trips, he started trying to run out the downstairs exit doors. Now, I don't know if he was confused or actually running away again. Regardless, it was time to bid adieu to the Discovery Barn and spend some time exploring Sting Ray Bay and the Penguin Plaza. 

After enjoying our lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I knew that our time at the Zoo was coming to an end. However, there was one last thing Ethan wanted to do before leaving and that was to ride the carousel. As we stood in line, Ethan took the opportunity to pick out the exact animal he wanted to ride: a lion. When we got to the lion though, Ethan was overjoyed to find a Royals logo emblazoned on the side of the lion. After our ride had ended, we began to exit the carousel. However, Ethan's independent streak took hold once again as he saw a painted horse with the Chiefs logo all over its saddle. Well, if you were Ethan, you'd understand that you can't ride the Royals animal and not ride the Chiefs animal. With that in mind, he started trying to climb onto the horse. I grabbed him pretty quickly and responded that we had to wait in line for our turn before he could get on the horse. However, after a short wait in line, Ethan sat astride Warpaint with glee as the carousel spun around and around.

After that, the time had come for us to exit the Zoo and head for home. Ethan, for his part, was exhausted after a day of running away from me and forcing me to seek him over and over again. That was evident by the fact that he had passed out within five minutes of being in the car. While I was definitely tired after trying to keep track of him, I couldn't sleep; I still had to drive home!

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Day 1,253 - Tasty Donuts, Kindergarten Blues, and Grumpy Little Brothers

It can be hard to be a little brother. I can't confirm that myself because of the whole only child thing. However, from what I've observed over the years, it can be rather difficult. I mean, Bethany's younger brother is 32 years old and the family still refers to him as "The Boy" (although there was a slight push recently to start calling him "The Fellow"). For Ethan, the reminder that he's the younger brother can come at any time and when it does, well, he might just become grumpy!

For Ethan, his most recent bout of little brother, FOMO-induced grumpiness occurred last Friday as we headed to Ellie's school for Breakfast with Buddies. In addition to the obvious breakfast of a donut and milk, Breakfast with Buddies essentially serves as a student-led parent-teacher conference. For Ellie, Breakfast with Buddies was especially exciting as Bethany was actually able to be in attendance due to a day off work!

When the four of us arrived at Fox Hill, the first thing we did was head to Ellie's classroom. The second we got there, Ellie began to excitedly show us around her classroom. The first thing we got to see was her table. There, Ellie shared her self-assessment with us. It was actually pretty interesting because Ellie was able to pick and choose what she wanted to improve at moving forward. She included being able to write 1-20 perfectly, improving at addition and subtraction, and writing better sentences. While it seems like she's doing just fine at all of those things, I was definitely proud of her for highlighting things she wants to do better (literally and figuratively). 

 

While Ellie was excitedly conducting her student-led conference with Bethany, I tried to keep up with Ethan who was happily pinballing around the room. At one point, he found himself in the classroom library where he set out to find any book that he recognized from home. For the record, he did a great job doing just that. We really enjoyed the excitement he showed upon finding one of his favorite books, "Last Stop on Market Street". Ethan also spent time practicing identifying his ABCs (to the relative amazement of Ellie's teacher) and working as a seat-tester by sitting in every seat he could find in the classroom.

When the time came for us to leave, Ethan became slightly agitated as he wanted to know where his seat in the classroom was. You see, at some point during the morning, Ethan became convinced that he was starting Kindergarten on this day. While he didn't fight our declaration that it was time to leave, he was certain to spend the rest of the morning informing us that he was grumpy. He even proudly proclaimed it to the lady working in the Recorder of Deeds office in the Clay County courthouse. That's clearly something that she needed to know, right?

Lucky for us, once we got home, Ethan seemed to forget about his grumpiness and instead gave himself over to the healing powers of Paw Patrol. Convenient since Marshall was wearing his paramedic gear instead of his fireman's suit in the episode.  

Oh wow, that was a really bad joke. Please don't judge me too harshly for that.

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