The Linton Zoo & Kid-Isms

Sissy and I took the littles to the Linton Zoo last week.  We had a warm and sunny day and this was our first real “outing” since we’d been home from China, other than the store, the doctor and church.  The Linton Zoo is about a half hour from where we live and a nice way to kill half a day.  The entrance fees were a little bit high for what is actually there, I thought, but it was nice.  I would describe it as a lush park in the woods with a few animals here and there, versus a zoo.  It lacks the commercialism of a larger zoo – there wasn’t someone trying to sell you a cheaply made trinket every 100 yards and there was only one small snack shop. 

Picnics are allowed.  There are several picnic tables near the entrance, but there are also tables throughout the property.  We ate near the front, which was nice because we could take our cooler back to our car easily, but had we waited to eat and ventured in a bit further before setting lunch out, we could have eaten in full view of the lions.  That would have been cool. 

The zoo has a few big cats – I counted four lions and two tigers.  They have several varieties of small monkeys, to include a separate lemur exhibit that you have to pay an extra 10 pounds a person for.  We were tempted – but that was a lot of money for 4 people, probably equivalent to 70 U.S. Dollars.  That wasn’t in the budget this time, and we’ve heard no feedback on whether it’s worth the money at all.  The sign promised some really up close & personal lemur experiences, and I’m not really sure how much of that was hype.  I’m also not sure that my boys would be up for that much up close & personal lemur experiences. 

 

In addition to the monkeys and cats, there were several birds (we met one parrot who could say a few words in a weirdly human voice and that was pretty entertaining) zebras, kangaroos and wallabies.  They had a small reptile and bug area that wasn't very impressive.

And let us not forget the very sexually active large tortoises.  Hubs and I took Doodlebug to this very zoo last year and were treated with the sights (and sounds) of two tortoises (is it okay to call them turtles?) “doing it” for lack of better terms.  I do try to keep this blog PG-13 but if you have never seen two turtles in this position (think turtle style), you’re really missing out.  The sounds are sounds you wouldn’t expect to come out of a turtle and no, I don’t know which turtle was making the sounds.  Anyhoo…when the kids and I visited last week, guess what we saw.  Same thing.  I can't tell you if it was the same pair of turtles, but it was total de je vu.  I didn’t see anything on the website about special turtle entertainment, so maybe we just got lucky. 

The Linton Zoo has a very nice woodsy feel about it and I felt very comfortable letting my littles run around and burn off some energy.  It wasn’t like a big city zoo where a child could get lost in the crowd and it was great for all of us (although I think Sissy may have been a tiny bit bored).  They had a great playground tucked in the back of the zoo and we spent quite a bit of time just letting the boys slide.  One other “con” I didn’t mention was the lack of an “on site” toilet.  You actually have to leave the zoo grounds to use the loo, which really isn’t that big of a treck, more of a minor inconvenience.  Also, the ladies did not have a changing table.  They did last year when we took Doodlebug but it has mysteriously disappeared from the wall. 

If you have an afternoon to spare on a semi decent day, check this place out (assuming you are somewhere in the East Anglia area of England…otherwise it’s not worth the trip).  http://lintonzoo.com/

 

Kid-Isms

My littles are a lot of work.  They really are.  Getting them dressed, fed and bathed is an art (or science) that I’m still working on.  Taking them out together, especially by myself, is something I am just beginning to feel comfortable with.  Comfortable meaning not totally terrified.  

Doodlebug is really exploding with language.  When he completed his “early intervention” visits just after his third birthday, the therapists told us he was slightly language delayed but they attributed it to not being a native English speaker and having to catch up.  I’m pretty sure he almost has…if not, he is pretty close.  Here are some of the funny things he said this week:

“Too Loudly!”  Doodles likes to tell Peanut he is doing everything “too loudly”.  I’m not sure what exactly he thinks his bro is doing too loudly.  Breathing? Peanut is really not a loud kid.  When Doodlebug complains (loudly) about the “too loudly”, the only thing “too loudly” I hear is Doodlebug.

“You’re a turkey!”  Just a couple of weeks ago, this was “you turkey” but now he’s grammatically correct.  We all take turns in our house being the turkey.  If you are giving something he wants, odds are, you are NOT the turkey.  If you’re standing around with ice cream in one hand and candy in the other, Doodlebug is probably not going to tell you that you’re a turkey.  “You’re a turkey” is usually his standard retort for something you’ve said that he doesn’t like. 

“Oh my [leg] [feet] [finger] [head] [back] [insert any other body part here]!”  To say Doodlebug is a little bit dramatic is an understatement.  If he grazes any part of his body on anything (such as brushing up against a doorframe), it’s an event that just falls short of major surgery.  There is just something funny about hearing a three year old complain about their back. 

Peanut did it”.  Poor Peanut is responsible for most misdeeds, spills, and mischief around our house.  Interestingly enough, Peanut was responsible for wetting Doodlebug's pants. That kid has skillz and I'm not usually one for alternative spellings.

Peanut's language is exploding, too, which is  amazing considering he’s only been in our family 7 weeks and had not heard more than a couple of English words spoken, ever.  If anyone in the waiting process of international adoption or anyone contemplating it has gotten this far in this (probably boring to other people) description about my kids, do not sweat the “they won’t speak English” part.  Truly.

Seven weeks in, Peanut seems to understand most things we tell him.  He follows instructions pretty well and knows several English words and phrases.  He can also count to 5 and point to about 10 of his body parts when asked stuff like “where is your nose?” 

His phrase of the moment is “that way”.  Peanut will use this to indicate where he wants to go when we’re out walking (or driving – he and Doodlebug are huge backseat drivers) or to indicate where something is if you ask.  For example, when I ask him where his hair is, he points to the top of his head and says “that way”.  Good enough. 

Peanut has been a huge eater since we brought him home.  It’s been no secret that there wasn’t enough food in his life before we showed up and it’s been both a joy and a sadness to see how he relishes food.  That said, now that he’s started to figure out that he’s not going to be hungry, he’s started to be just a little discriminating.  I’ve been trying to get more fiber in to his diet, and I had the bright idea to mush up some canned pears and put them in to his oatmeal.  I didn’t mush them up enough, apparently, because he picked each and every pear piece out and lined them up on the table.  When I discovered this, he pointed at them, made a face and said “pee ew”.  Well, then.  He likes fresh pears well enough (although all fruit is “apple” at this point) but the canned pears in the oatmeal apparently were not acceptable.  He’s also done this with his lima beans out of the mixed veggies.  Can’t say I blame him there. 

Peanut is big on knowing where everyone is at the moment.  He always looks for and asks after anyone not present in the home.  He has started to say “Didi school”, “Sissy school” and “Daddy work” when those three aren’t around.  He is very big on “family togetherness”.  He seems to get a little concerned when one person leaves the house or when we take him somewhere and someone stays behind.  We also get this reaction when we’re out in public and we split up, even when one of us scoots over to the next aisle in the grocery store to grab something.  I can see he’s starting to become secure with the fact that we’re a family and he seems to understand that we will all end up in the same place eventually, even though we’re not doing the 24/7 togetherness. 

Peanut has started making the rounds at the base hospital.  He’s got so many appointments over the next 30 days that I’m having trouble keeping everything straight.  Unfortunately, I see quite a few doctor appointments in his near term.  More unfortunately, he is scared to death of any type of doctor’s office or anything he perceives to be a doctor’s office.  I took him to the base chapel for a meeting and we went from reception to a conference room with two “strangers” and he started hollering up a storm…I guess he thought it was an exam room and it took a bit of time to convince him otherwise.  He was still suspicious until we left, though.  Even benign things like the blood pressure cuff freak him out.  He got very upset at the brief medical exam we had to undergo to exit China and every medical situation we’ve been in since has elicited the same reaction.  I wonder what he’s been through.  Since we have been Peanut’s parents, he’s had to get two shots and have two blood draws.  He’s been examined by two different pediatricians.  There is much more to come – he has four specialty appointment in the month of October, plus another follow up with our regular pediatrician.  Hectic!  He is worth it though, and I know we are on the road to getting him healthy. 

Sharing – my boys have very different approaches to sharing.  For Doodlebug, “share” is a four letter word.  The other day, I gave them a bowl of orange segments and said “OK boys, you have to share this”.  I know, that was super dumb of me.  There was no bowl shortage going on in my house and I don’t know what possessed me to do anything other than to use two equally sized bowls and distribute the exact same number of orange pieces to each child.  Doodlebug’s idea of sharing is to hold the bowl and dole out orange slices (or apple slices, crackers, whatever) to Peanut one at a time.  If Peanut wants to hold the bowl?  Forget it. 

Peanut is the exact opposite.  If I give him something, he wants the same for Doodlebug.  We use Skittles at our house for potty training.  Every time Peanut uses the potty, he gets a skittle.  Every time, he always wants one “for Didi” whether or not “Didi” was anywhere near the potty himself.

So that is where we are.  One successful outing to the zoo under our belts.  The sharing is coming along.  We are starting to figure out what our new normal is and it feels pretty good. 

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