Friday, June 20, 2008

Trip to the Zoo



I had to work last night until late, so everyone was sleeping when I got home. Do I love this? Sometimes, heck yes! I got spend a little alone time with a book before going down for the count myself. I awoke at 7 am to daughter saying, "Milk, milk." So I know these means that she just woke up and hubby has gone fishing (something he does every single morning that I don't have to be somewhere).


So I get up to get a cup of milk for daughter and hubby calls, saying we should take daughter to the zoo today. Now, I'm not raggin' on the zoo in the area. It's fine. But after living in San Antonio (where they have a magnificent zoo) and taking daughter to Omaha Zoo (which just plain ROCKS), this one seems...well...tiny. Which is ok, because daughter is REALLY into animals right now and it's about her and I think it's a great idea. Go hubby!


So we went this morning. It was good. Started out a bit rocky, as daughter spilled her juice all over the car seat and it looked like she wet herself. I promise she didn't! Daughter kept asking for bear, which disappointed her when there were none. She did say "hee-haw" to all the donkeys and *trumpet sound* to the baby elephant and "meow" to the lions and "grrrr" to the tigers (why tigers are more fierce than that huge male lion, I'll never know).


I try to take daughter as many places as I can. I know she needs these experiences. Part of me can't help but look at other kids her age and wonder if she'll ever catch up. And if she doesn't...that's okay. Autism is a weird monster, because she looks completely, 100% "normal" (and I know I'm the mom, but daughter is GORGEOUS)...so people sometimes judge a little bit. Yes, my 3 year old still has to wear pull ups, yes, my 3 year old gets ooed and aawed over when she makes animal sounds. But she's making connections! I want to scream at everyone, "Hey! My kid just meowed at a lion! She gets it!"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That rocks! Glad you had a good day! My oldest is 5 and still wears pull ups. I stumbled on your blog in a search. ROCK ON for a good day!

Dorian said...

How much fun is the zoo!!! We really need to get to it this summer too.

I just recently wrote a paragraph in a Critical Thinking class. It was about how people judge our situations without knowing all the details. I've gotten lots of looks, and low voice comments, about how Marcus behaves. I just gently remind myself that they don't know him or our situation and if they could just spend 30 seconds with him their opinions would be SO different.

Don't worry about the pullups. My NT 4 year old was wearing them not that long ago. It's just another thing for people to judge us on, without knowing all the facts.

groovyteach said...

bratmom, i hope you'll come back! thanks for the vote of confidence.

dorian, et al...

i understand completely. i'm sure i've judged people without all the facts a million times...it's human nature, i think. this has taught me a lesson, for sure! it's just so hard when it's your baby girl they're judging...even though they're really judging me as the parent, but it's like nothing gets your feathers ruffled like someone saying something bad about your kid! lol

novakgirl said...

Sounds like she's doing a lot of great things! Very exciting to hear all that requesting and animal sound labeling. Go you for working so hard on those things with her!