Three’s

That’s a Friday Night Lights reference just in case you aren’t a follower of the show, and it is referring to a character whose jersey number is 33.  Explaining it all sort of takes the fun out of it all, but I got to thinking that you all might wonder what in the world the title meant and I didn’t want to change it to something else.

My special day began wonderfully.  The birds were singing, the sun was shining…..it would have been better if the birthday fairy had gone ahead and let me sleep in while she woke up Mattie and got her all ready for school.  But that’s okay, there’s always next year.  Reese had big plans for the two of us (actually, there were 3 but I don’t think he was considering Lila to be an active participant on our date).  First, he picked out my outfit.  I wore the jeans that were on the top  of the pile, my favorite white shirt (that is  not in the least bit cute or flattering or really even suitable to be worn out in public anymore), this really flashy black and hot pink feathery headband that he thinks is lovely, and a bead necklace that Mattie made me a while ago.  I was looking pretty spiffy.  Well, at least it could have been much, much worse.

So off we went, with our first stop here:

And tastee it is

Because everyone knows that zoos are best when paired with donuts and chocolate milk.

Outside the gates of the zoo. So EXCITED!

Breakfast of champions!

My darling breakfast buddies

Even Lila got in on the donut love.

That’s donutty drool on her little face

 

Our first stop on the zoo tour was the gift shop.  Reese has been talking about a plastic bat that he saw at the zoo gift shop back this past spring when we went with Mattie’s class.  At the time, I thought it wasn’t really fair to buy my kids souvenirs when everyone else wasn’t getting treasures.  But he has reminded me of that bat for months now, so when it was decided that we would be going to the zoo for my birthday, that was priority number one.  He even remembered exactly where their display had been.  So once plastic bat was adopted as well as a tiny bat Memphis zoo button to pin on his shirt, we were off to where else, to see the bats of course.  And that is where we stayed for at least 45 minutes.  The bats at our zoo our in a very dark building that also houses other “creatures of the night”.  Really, as far as animals go, I think he chose wisely.  Their building is air-conditioned in the summer and heated during the winter.  It isn’t muggy like the reptile building and doesn’t have things like reptiles in it.  No, the bats are right across the aisle from the aardvarks and the sleuths, both creatures that I don’t mind spending some time with either. Since we also purchased a zoo membership, I can see us spending many hours just hanging out in the bat building.

Modeling bat wings

Best building in the zoo

And when we finally left there, we said hey to the big cats and then it was off to the pandas.  But the pandas are in the China portion of our zoo and in order to get to China, you must pass through a little piece of frightening that I guess is supposed to be Indonesia.  And the only Indonesian creature that our zoo features is the Komodo Dragon.  Those closest to me know that this is my nightmare animal.  Literally, I have dreams where I wake up thrashing and sobbing because I have dreamt that I walked downstairs and there was a Komodo Dragon down there.  They are worse than the turtles at the alligator farm.  Way worse. Not only are they lizards that are entirely too big (terrifying side note: I recently learned that Komodo Dragons never stop growing through their entire lives.  And if kept in captivity where they have no enemies and a constant food supply, it is possible that much like tortoises, they could live to be who knows how old and keep growing the entire time.  So if you figure that a 20-year-old Dragon can be 8-9 feet long, just imagine how big a, 80-year-old one would be?  Nightmares I tell you.), but they are also carnivorous and mean and angry and have poisonous bacterial spit.  And there are a few of them that live in our zoo. I have managed to avoid these awful lizards for 4 years.  Usually, i have either brought another parent/ grandparent/ friend with me who doesn’t share my intense phobia and they will take my child through the scary building or I just distract the kids and they forget about that particular creature.  But this time, I wasn’t so lucky.  I was the only grown-up and Reese wanted desperately to see them because he had recently seen an animal movie featuring these horrible things.  He begged and begged and I found myself begging him just as aggressively to please skip them this time.  Finally, I decided really this was ridiculous.  It’s just a really big lizard, no big deal.  I am a grown-up and my child wants to see an animal.  So for the first time, i actually walked through the little gate with my head held high ready to conquer my fears.  And then I saw it, sitting out in its yard sunning its gigantic reptilian body.  Let me just take a minute to emphasize the word GIGANTIC here.  And all that bravery went out the window almost followed by my special birthday donut.  And like the big baby that I am…..I started to cry.  Not big ugly sobbing cry, but more like please don’t make me go in there  because it scares me to the core kind of crying.  Daniel had a lion’s den, this was my lions den.  Reese told me what a scaredy cat I was, but allowed me to hold his hand and close my eyes as he led me and the stroller I pushed with a death grip through the outer lizard yard.  It was terrible and yet I was incredibly proud of myself all at the same time.  But still the biggest scaredy cat in my 4 years olds eyes.

After that torturous experience we treated ourselves to an icee.  I felt like considering my near death experience, we could splurge for the big one.  Lila had a bottle and I took a moment to recompose myself.  Then it was off to the bears. We had a lovely little picnic next to the bat house, said good-bye to the bats until next week when I am sure we will return.

Icee break

Proof that I was there at the zoo with my kids

Kids 2 and 3

Her dazzling new smile

My birthday fun continued with a visit to the wonderful Nan.  A few weeks ago I had said that I wanted nothing more on my birthday than to make an appointment to get my hair washed and styled and to sit around and eat apple pie with Nan and Shannie at the salon.  Well, Shannie had class on Tuesday so she wasn’t able to fulfill the sitting around at the salon part, but Brandon did make me a haircut appointment and when I arrived, Shannon had a corner set up with gifts and a Komodo DRagon sized apple pie.  Nan indulged me with a fabulous scalp massage and I enjoyed every little minute of my visit.  So it wasn’t cupcakes in class, but I think just as great if not better.

With Shannie right after my hair was luxuriously washed

My birthday corner, thank you Shannie and Nan

Real love is when a friend makes you a delicious pie and gifts you with super comfy, stretchy pants to wear while you eat it

 

My special day was topped off with a romantic dinner with my sweetheart, and then a trip to Ben & Jerry’s to collect that free ice cream cone.  A great day, sprinkled with texts and messages from my special people, reminding me that I make their lives happy just as they make mine, making new memories of what birthday magic is.

Enjoying my free birthday ice cream

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