not as expected

this morning i woke up and asked jesse, "do you want to go to the zoo?"

he smiled and agreed on that being a grand idea. so we asked luca at breakfast what he thought of it. if we could pick one thing luca likes more than anything else, it would probably be animals. as expected, luca's face slowly broke into a huge grin as he realized what we were asking. it was officially a plan. (gia doesn't yet get a vote as she is happy being anywhere we are as long as we pay attention to her.) we packed up a picnic lunch and all of our gear (which continuously surprises us at the sheer volume) and went off to the miller park zoo. the visit started out great. we listed several options for luca to choose from and after i listed "leopards, tigers, and bears. . ." he quickly replied, "uh-huh!" (sing it to the wizard of oz chant "lions, tigers and bear, oh my!" - it made us laugh) the leopard stopped pacing when we approached it's habitat and i swear it was eyeing gia - i know she's cute but this leopard had other things on its mind.

the crazy primates were playing chase and swinging from branch to branch like daredevils. the rainforest exhibit was full of exotic birds. we pet a chinchilla and a boa during the creature feature. the alpaca was a huge hit as luca loves to look at them in his animal encyclopedia. we learned all the names of the goats in the petting zoo (and gia really wanted to chew on the fence for their pen).

but i think it may have been sometime in the zoo lab (a place with "interesting" bugs like walking sticks, meerkats, and a butterfly room) that luca's enthusiasm began to wane. we decided to stop for lunch in case it was just hunger. when we were setting up luca began yawning and when asked if he was tired, he gave a resigned, "uh-huh." he only ate half of his sandwich (a huge deal for our big eater) and wanted to sit in the stroller afterwards (another big deal for him to give up the freedom to run free). jesse and i began wondering what was wrong. there were a few more things to see and do, so we carried on. visited the wallaby walkabout, saw huge tortoises up close, and rode the carousel. luca kept looking more and more exhausted, so we scrapped the plan to get carl's ice cream on the way home. this is the child i could not get to take a nap twice this week. and here we are at the zoo.





while driving back to the house, luca started to look a bit spacey and stopped answering our questions. by the time we got him inside, he felt really hot and his temp was up to 102.9. we gave him some medicine, cooled him down with some wet rags, and got him into bed. the remainder of the afternoon was spent keeping the boy comfortable and rested. thankfully his fever began to break in the early evening and he is now sleeping (for the night, hopefully).

add to the mix, gia refusing to nurse, fighting being fed sweet potatoes, and not wanting her evening bottle - it has been one unexpected day. just shows you that even the best laid plans can be waylaid by a freak fever and a fussy baby. unfortunately, today was not the relaxing family fun day we had hoped for. we did get to spend all of it together, which is a lot more than others have, especially those with loved ones serving our country overseas. just keeping a little perspective.