Zoo Zürich, part 2

I was itching to get out of the house this morning, but it took some doing with Joey.  Since those two times he used the potty, he's been sly about his diapers.  He was trotting around the house, reeking, blithely promising me "Nope! No poop!"  I finally had to wrestle him down to change him, at which point he broke down, poor guy: "No, I big boy! I use potty!"  After I changed him he ran off to the potty, and, perched there, looked at me with heart-rending sorrow: "Not working, Mommy, not working." I may have to change my tactics.

But when I got him out of the house, he was back to being independent Joey. He marched down the sidewalk with the big kids, leaving old mom trailing behind.

I took the kids back to see the second half of the Zürich Zoo.  The temperature started falling again, and they're predicting snow for tonight or tomorrow, so an afternoon in the Rainforest sounded like just the thing. 

This exhibit turned out to be more greenhouse than zoo.  It was still very appealing for the kids, though: there were lots of little trails in the airport-hanger-sized space. Plenty of room to get in, with the foliage crowding and spilling into the paths.  Alex was in heaven, especially, pretending to be an explorer (specifically, Diego), using all of the binoculars they had laying around. We saw the tail end of some red pandas off in an unaccessible corner, and then there was a pond with several Galápagos tortoises. (Ella cheered when she saw her favorite animal.)  They also had free-range chameleons roaming the shrubs.  I thought it was neat that they trusted the public to be kind to their lizards, although that trust might have been misplaced.  Joey's fingers were wiggling in anticipation as he inched closer and closer. Darn that mom and her firm grip!

It doesn't take long to run through paths, so we ended up back out in the cold much more quickly than I'd anticipated.  I thought I'd take them to see some of the other indoor animal habitats, but we got sidetracked by two more wonderful playgrounds.  The first, the steepest slide we'd seen yet.  (I got to go down: Joey would have it no other way.)

And the second, the kids proclaimed to be the best they've seen so far.  The playground was fashioned like a giant spider's web, all ropes and swings and dangling egg sacs for the kids to climb up inside.  Just the right level of gruesome to appeal to a child.

The latest in our continuing series of amazing playgrounds around Zürich

Ella shucked her coat as soon as she saw all the ropes for climbing: no encumberances, please.  For a while Joey followed around some chickens had foolishly made their home on the playground, and then he found a swing and went no further.  He reluctantly gave it up for a few longing kids, but as soon as they were done, back in he went.  Alex stayed with Joey a while, pushing him, and then asked me to help him talk to some other boys, to see if it would be okay if he pushed them on their swings, too.  Trying to make friends.

When Joey's teeth started chattering, I told the other two kids it was time for us to go.  We'd made plans to meet Dennis at a restaurant adjacent to our supermarket, anyway, and I needed to allow an hour for the trip across town to home. I let them pause in the souvenir store on the way out, though. The boys got tiny stuffed animals, and Ella chose a peacock feather.  True to form, she's now trying to figure out how long it will take her to save enough money to buy a whole tail's worth of feathers.




Ella's birthday is far away, but her Aunt Stephanie wrote to ask what she'd like for the big day since she's planning on mailing presents.  Her wish list:

• Dark sunglasses and earmuffs, so that she won't be distracted while daydreaming and imagining
• A remote control vehicle (a plane, helicopter, or really fast car will do)
• Makeup
• Parker Bros. Life board game
• A music box, exactly like the one I gave Alex for his birthday
• Pulley system so that she and the boys can send things from one part of the room to the other

When I told Dennis about the last one, he said nope, no way. How many minutes, he asked me, would I give them before they used the pulley to try to lift each other or to make a zip line across the apartment. I hadn't thought of that.  They must get it from his side of the family.

(Dennis's sister reports: "I get the speculation about the pulley getting turned into a zip line. Ask your husband whether he remembers for how many YEARS we begged my dad to cut a hole in the floor of one of the closets upstairs so we could make a tunnel to the basement. We were dead serious.")

At dinner, Dennis was feeling poorly with a headache, so he asked that I order the food.  Somehow, instead of the curry sausage I meant to get him, I ended up with fried shrimp.  Happily, I heard from the Berlitz group today, and as soon as I take my placement test they can arrange a class schedule for me.

Then we got our shopping done, and topping our list of things to buy were bedside clocks for the kids.  We didn't bring theirs from Seattle, and they've been getting out of bed much too early. The kids gleefully discovered the alarms on their clocks, paining our headachy Dennis considerably. On the plus side, Alex learned what the little hand on a clock is for.  I'll see him tomorrow after that little hand is on the 7, thank you very much.

Before he went to bed tonight, Alex made me a little treasure out of construction paper.  It's supposed to be me, if I were a superhero who had been eating grapes (which are drawn in the tummy). It's a reward for doing all of my chores, he said, including washing the kids, washing the laundry, making dinner, and reading an extra story.

My sweet boy. He noticed.