Daddy Daughter day at the zoo and in the rain!

I started to write this entry last week and as usual, it was to contain a lot of moaning, groaning and whinging. But fuuuuck that shit - I just had the best daddy daughter day and I want to tel lyou all about it...

DADDY DAUGHTER DAY - 

AKA 

HANNAH AND RICK TAKE OVER THE ZOO!

Early Sunday morning little Oliver woke up and had a huge big pile of green snot stuck in his tiny teeny nose. He had a back cold and a little cough and so, under the current circumstances we decided it was not a day to take him with us on a family outing to the zoo. Myself and Hannah were just fine - No symptoms at all, so we said our goodbyes to Buffy and Oliver and headed out to the Zoo around 10am. 

A couple of days ago he was full of himself!

                                                 But Sunday was a sad day for little Oliver

On the way there we chatted and listened to some books, that I recorded myself reading, so Hannah could listen to them whenever she liked. We got to the Zoo and walked straight into the members entrance, past the part-time plebs, waiting in a huge queue to pay their entry.

I asked H what she wanted to see first and she shouted 'Dinosaurs'., so we headed straight to the dinosaur exhibit - About 20 life-sized animatronic dinosaurs located along a trail through the forest inside the zoo.

 Covid restrictions have been eased, so we could go straight there instead of taking the one way lane that was in place around the zoo the last time we visited.  

Now Hannah loves the dinosaurs and as soon as we got there, she leapt out of the stroller and ran from dinosaur to dinosaur giving them all names, ages and backstories - 'This one is his brother', 'His neck is so long because he has big feet and whatever. I felt like I was one of the animals being watched for a while because Hannah was so full of herself, people started to watch her instead of the dinosaurs and then they watched me as I let her do her thing. It was awesome!

Hannah taking centre stage!

We spent the first hour going round and round the exhibit until Hannah decided she wanted to see the gibbons instead.

So, we got our stuff together and walked the short distance to eth gibbon enclosure, where we watched them play really close by and had a spot of lunch - with our shoes off!

Then it was onto the Goats!

Hannah loves Anyt Sallys Farm, which is a cool little area full of goats, a kids playground and a lovely little grassed area with a climbing frame and benches where you can eat. There is also an indoor walkthrough exhibit with lots of fish, birds, tortoises, and meerkats that you can get really close up with. The entrance even has kid-sized doors, just 2 feet high which she loves to go through! We stopped here for another snack after looking around the goats inside the exhibit. Hannah had a little climb on the structure and was just eating an apple slice when a wasp landed on her lip. I saw it just as she swiped at it and 'boom' it stung her. At least it looked like it stung her, her lip did go red and she cried for about 10 minutes and said she wanted to go home, but as suddenly as to started she stopped and said' Can we go see the polar bears now?'

So we went to the Polar bear exhibit. For those of you who haven't seen this, its great - A huge perspex tunnel under a swimming area for the polar bears means you get really close to them and it's very very popular.

This is a picture of part of it...

We normally get here early in the morning,, but today it was lunchtime and the bears were swimming all over the tunnel. There was a queue to get through. We joined the queue and when we reached the top of the ramp, Hannah stopped. She said we had to wait in line. Now the queue in front of us was moving slowly away, but we couldn't go anywhere really. We would just be shuffling forward with everyone else, so I let Hannah play her game and we waited as the queue moved away ahead of us, 5 feet, 10 feet and a little more. 

The family behind us was laughing and playing along with Hannah, waiting for her to let us join the back of the queue when a grumpy old biddy pushed past everyone saying - 'we can't wait here all day you know' and forced herself to the back of the queue ahead of us. Gaining absolutely nothing apart from more miserableness. and making my daughter cry. The fucking moody old battleaxe! (The woman not Hannah) 

She had spoilt Hannahs game and pushed ahead of us for no reason at all. 

We moved ahead with everyone else as Hannah cried on my shoulder and I was so tempted to say, 'Thanks for nothing dickhead', but I bit my tongue instead as we waited our turn, just behind them with everyone else. 

Luckily Hannah quickly recovered and after seeing the polar bears, she went outside and played in the sandbox for a while. Well, actually it was about an hour. She climbed up the old whale skeleton which is the theme of the sandbox and inside it, she made a kitchen and lounge as well as helping me dig a huge hole in the sand as long as my arm. She had taken her shoes off to play in the sand and when we finally left, she decided she wanted to walk - without shoes - back to the dinosaurs - which is as least a 10-minute walk away. 

On the way you pass a helicopter, boats and a full-sized train - all there to make it feel like Churchill, where the polar bears live in Northern Manitoba. She passed them until she reached the train, where we had a good wander along the track and through the mud - barefoot of course. 

Then past the tigers and back to the dinosaurs. By now the sun had disappeared and rain was forecast, but we didn't mind. A lot of people were getting raincoats on, but we were in t-shirt's and Hannah was still barefoot as we reached the dinosaurs and she ran around on the stony path, oblivious to the wonder she was causing the other families with their gentle children being pulled along in wagons, covered wit umbrellas in case they got a bit wet. 

After the dinosaurs Hannah said I could have ice cream - She actually said I could share hers, so we picked one up from the Ice cream shop, and sat on a bench, in the rain, while she named every bug that came along (They aware al called 'Bug') and explained why the reindeer were sitting in the rain' The ARE rain deers!!!) She has the logic of Einstein!

Sandbox - This is her Kitchen!

You can just see the red wasp sting on her lip

Happy girl with Ice cream - which she shared really nicely!

Then the rain really started falling properly and the rest of the public grabbed their waterproofs, kids and strollers and headed to the exit....... 

We didn't....

We grabbed our umbrella and started dancing with it - or at least Hannah did. Literally dancing, swinging around and playing in the rain - no shoes on (still) and loving...every...single...second! 

I looked around and the rest of the world seemed to be doing something completely different - Heading home to get away from the rain, while our little girl revelled in it and I could not be prouder. 

For about 10 -15 minutes she just enjoyed being herself and didn't care about the rain, or anyone else except me and her. It was joyful and marvellous and reminded me so much of me and Buffys wedding night party, when the entire family danced in a downpour for hours - the best party ever. . It was as if Hannah was reliving that night even though she wasn't even a twinkle in anyone eye back then,. 

Here's just a couple of minutes of her joy...

I honestly could have played with and watched Hannah dance and play, barefoot, in the rain all day, but eventually, we reached the Zoo exit and we made our way back to the car, where I showed her the brake pedal (She had spent a while playing with the brake on eth stroller and asked where the car brake was) before we loaded up and headed home for a nap.

I often take Hannah out for an hour or two when Buffy needs a break, but this was one of the first times we had spent the entire morning together on a day out without Buffy and Oliver. It was lovely though and even with the wasp sting and the grumpy old biddy in the queue, we had a lovely lovely time. 

When we got home, Oliver was feeling a little better and I got to spend the afternoon with him when Buffy took Hannah out for a bit of shopping later in the day. They also had a lot of fun and came home with some funny stories.  It was a really good day for everyone because Oliver wasn't well enough to be around other people. So it goes to show, sometimes good things happen when you don't expect them to!