What I'm trying to get at here is that I wasn't sure what we were going to do today. My mind was more on what I had to do than what I could do with them. As I was trying to coax LP1 into going down for a nap, inspiration came to me. I told her that if she took a big nap we would go to the pet store when she woke up. The pet store! Stroke of genius on my part...very little prep work to go there!
Now, to be fair, both LP1 and LP2 have been to the pet store before but not for a long time. We haven't taken LP2 since he was very young. Now that he is getting older and taking more of an interest in his surroundings I figured he would enjoy the outing. In order to make this as "new"as possible, I decided to do as much as I could with them on the way there, at the pet store and on the way home.
Once everyone was changed, dressed and loaded into the car (today I forgot to put shoes on LP2 but whatever, he's a BABY and I knew he wasn't leaving the stroller so I was prepared to talk any random Bad Parent Stern Lookers into leaving us alone), we headed out. LP1 and I sang songs about animals, starting with "How Much is That Doggie In the Window?" and ending with "Old Macdonald" because these are the only two songs I could think of about animals. We talked about the different noises animals make, which ones have feathers or soft fur or long trunks, and what animals we were likely to see today (apparently they do not sell kangaroos in pet stores, much to my disappointment).
I wanted to go somewhere close, so we hit up Big Al's. The nice thing about Big Al's is that they have a wide selection of just about everything so you can really stretch a trip here out.
We started out in the fish section and this was an immediate hit with LP2. He laughed with delight at each new tank we passed and was fascinated with the fishies. I think we could have just stayed in the fish area and that would have been enough for him. LP1, however, had other items on her agenda.
No thanks.
We left the fishies and headed over to the area I call "everything except for fish and creepy things". Both kids really enjoyed the guinea pigs, mice and the 8400 birds chirping and swinging and pooping everywhere. They were especially taken with the rabbits and wanted to stop to watch them hop and eat and do rabbit-like things. We cruised by where what we call the "noisy birds" are to listen and watch them. I have no idea about bird species. They were all parrots to me.
Next up was where the creepy things are. You know, snakes, frogs, lizards, things they call dragons but don't appear to breathe fire, spiders, etc. Fortunately both kids do not seem as taken by these creatures from hell. LP2 actually drew back when he saw them. LP1 was sort of grossly fascinated but didn't want to linger. Thank goodness because I really hope we never have any of these creatures in our house. They tend to escape and show up in weird places later. My nightmare is that we'd have some awful snake that would escape and I'd be having a shower and right at that moment where you close your eyes and tip back your head to rinse your hair it would drop down on me, causing me to fall, break my hip and have to add screaming to Daddy for help in addition to my screams of pure terror. My apologies to anyone who loves these creatures. Bravo to you.
We cruised by the pet salon to watch a dog getting a hair cut, something that intrigues both kids for reasons I don't quite get. We said a last goodbye to some fishies and hopped back in the car. We talked about the animals we saw today before cruising through a drive-through for a chocolate milk for LP1. I think both kids enjoyed this trip today. It is really gratifying to see LP2 start to take an interest in specific things, like fish. I'm sure this will lead Daddy to suggest we get an aquarium. I will suggest we keep visiting the pet store!
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