Friday, December 30, 2011

Adding a Wild Animal to the Zoo.

Kansas has had some fun weather this year. This summer the record of 100 degree days was broken, from 50 to 53, snow started about a month early in mid-November, of which there has only been one other day of snow, we've seen thunderstorms coming with those snowstorms, and there have even been earthquakes. Not technically weather, but EARTHQUAKES IN KANSAS!


While it appears we won't soon see any more of the dreaded Thundersnowquake, it has been weirdly warm. Yesterday the temperature reached above 60. We also managed Wednesday afternoon to all haul out to the Sedgwick County Zoo.

Jack at the penguin cove.

 Madison with Mama bear statue with her newly injured lip.

Charlotte riding baby bear.

3 kids 6 and under is always an adventure. Especially when the boy is 4 and runs nonstop. Especially when Jack would see an empty plot of sidewalk he could sprint to. More than once I heard my wife say to me, "Would you control your son?" It wasn't so much saying it. She apparently thought our son was becoming feral.

I normally would have been running right alongside him, but a heavy morning at the gym prevented that for the most part. So instead I got, "Would you control your son?"

The truth is, probably not. Yes, there are certain social protocols and behaviors that everyone is expected to follow, even around wild animals, but I think my wife was thinking about all these well-behaved homeschool children who know how to sit for 2 hours with their hands folded neatly in their laps. They all dress in khakis and flannel shirts, seem to always be smiling, and can tell you the difference between Rehoboam and Jeroboam.

And then there's Jack.

Just a whiff of the outdoors sends this kid into a frenzy. He's been cooped up inside for the past weeks from the cold and all the holiday fun at family's houses that he needed to run some energy out, and the zoo is a much better place to do it than the middle of the busy street less than a quarter mile from our house.

Chaos? Yes. But controlled chaos. Sort of.

Sorry, honey, but this kid is a boy. And boys are wild animals at heart. He knows there are lines not to cross, and he does learn from his mistakes, but he still needs to feel untamed every now and then.

1 comment:

  1. Pssst, I don't know what homeschool kids you're talking about, but I definitely have one who rivals your 4 year old. :) As I read when ours was a baby, we aren't to break them, just civilize them.

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