• out out out of the house!,  The Zoo

    The OC Zoo

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    After our little scuffle the other day, I promised Bug I would take her to the zoo the next time we had a free open day. That free open day happened a little sooner than I expected since Bug had a five day weekend for Memorial Day this weekend. I was going to take her to the Santa Ana Zoo but then Toby suggested Irvine Regional Park instead. I’ve never actually been here before and it’s a shame because it’s a really great park. It’s cheap to get in and there are a lot things to do. Most of them involve just roaming the vast open space but that’s perfect for a mom and her seven-year-old who need to get out and get some exercise.

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    I have to admit I didn’t have my hopes up very high for the zoo. I expected it to be small and mostly smelly monkeys. It only costs two bucks to get in after all.

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    They had the usual petting zoo goats and educational installations to read and touch, a few lizards and some sad owls and hawks who looked like they longed for blue skies and better days…

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    But what really blew me away were the mountain lions. There was a bear too (and a very cute one) but the mountain lions stole my heart. There were two of them and they were out and about, and super active. When we first rounded the corner, one mountain lion was playing with his big red rubber ball in the water fountain. Water was cascading down on his head and all over the ball.

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    Then later when we were standing there watching them another family came by and for some reason one of the mountain lions ears perked right up. Something about a little boy in that family fascinated him. The mountain lion floated down the hillside in one fluid motion, so quick and quiet you wouldn’t even have seen him if you weren’t watching. It was like he was hunting the little boy. The family seemed to be oblivious but it was freaky and cool at the same time. The mountain lion came right up to the chain link fence and chewed on the fence. I almost expected him to let out a blood curdling yowl but he didn’t. He turned back into the playful mountain lion that liked to play with his rubber ball in the water.

    I could have sat there for hours watching them. We would have too but we were hungry and the zoo doesn’t let you eat inside the zoo (which is understandable). Also, the park benches were around the corner and not in an optimal viewing area which made no sense at all. But anyway, if you live around here I strongly recommend you pay the two bucks, skip the goats, lizards and barn owls and just sit and watch the mountain lions. They are very entertaining.

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    Lunch was heavenly. The park is huge and there are so many places to just sit and enjoy nature… We chose a view of the lake which was not too shabby at all.

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    Then we wandered around a bit.

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    Before we left we rode the silly train but it was not worth five bucks at all. Maybe it is on other days and the engineers were just too tired to do their regular spiel but we passed all sorts of interesting things (like a water fountain in the middle of no where) and they didn’t say anything about them but instead rattled off useless facts with numbers that bored me to tears. But then that’s probably just me.

  • 15 minute posts,  Bad Mom,  Bug

    Temporary Bad Day Fix

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    Bug and I had the worst day yesterday. It happens. We’ve both been fighting one of those low-level colds that you can ignore most of the time except when you are tired and hungry and grumpy. We both skipped lunch. She always does because who wants to eat a boring old packed lunch when there is a playground to play on at school?!! My job hours are over at 1pm so I usually just wait until I’m off work to grab a bite. This makes for the perfect mix of crankypants on both of us when it comes pick-up time at school. Then we had a playdate fall through and the rest was just a whinefest of the usual dramatic proportions. I just wanted to go home, eat and escape into email and work. She just wanted me to drive her to the zoo. We fought.

    And then we fought some more.

    I hate it when this happens. My temper rises. She knows just the right combination of pestering and whininess to set me on edge. I ignore it and bite my tongue and then SNAP I lose it and say something meaner than I mean to. I feel like the worst mom in the world when unkind words come out of my mouth and yet if I’m not firm, and stick to my guns, I feel like I’m teaching her how to manipulate me. I sent her to her room so both of us could cool off and the next thing I knew she was carrying a blanket over her shoulder and walking out the front door.

    Now, first of all this is a terrible breach of my authority. I never said she could leave her room. But the sad pathetic blanket over her shoulder with her stuffed Hello Kitty doll inside made my heart break into pieces. She was trying to run away. How did we get to this? I remember packing my sleeping bag and my stuffed animal and trying to camp out in our side yard when I was a little kid because my parents were SO MEAN. Is she doing this already?

    When I was a kid my parents would just let me go outside and rough it for a few hours but I can’t really do that. Our neighborhood is safe but I can’t let her wander around our apartment complex alone. I had to call her back. We sat on the top step and talked about our feelings. She let me hug her and I struggled to hold my own tears inside.

    Her dad is always a phone call away but it’s hard not feeling incompetent all the time. He’s not there to see what lead up to this melt down and I hate letting him see my failures from the outside without context. She did call him eventually and thankfully he agreed with me that driving to the zoo wasn’t practical at all. But it still was a crappy day and I felt bad for her that I hadn’t handled it better. I poured myself a cup of coffee and came up with a plan to fix the day.

    I don’t even really want to say it fixed the day because it didn’t completely. We still have issues with afternoon low blood sugar and I’m working on fixing that with snacks and more appetizing packed lunches but it was a temporary distraction that made us both feel happier.

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    We made cookies. She measured and mixed all by herself and I made a lasagna for later. Then we went to the movies and caught a matinee and smuggled our cookies in with us. I’m surprised we fit it all in before bedtime but we did. Dinner was kind of a disaster because both of us were full of cookies and not hungry for lasagna but it got us through.

    Recipe after the break