My brother is home from Arizona for a few days. I wanted to spend some time with him. On top of that, it’s a nice day and we haven’t been to the zoo for a long time….so I called him up and asked him if he wanted to go with me and Elias. He was up for it, so we packed off to the zoo this morning.
We had a good time at the zoo as always. Elias is getting more and more interested in the animals. Last summer the only thing that really interested him was the fish tank. This time he really liked the sea otters and the monkeys. My favorite was the porcupines. I had never actually seen a porcupine in real life. I was amazed. If you ever come upon one…run! We also had fun seeing the lions, cheetahs, crocodiles, and much more.
While we are at places like the zoo, I like to allow Elias out of the stroller to walk. I want him to have practice walking around and staying with us. Plus it’s more fun for him to be able to walk around a bit rather than sit all the time, and it’s easier for him to see the animals out of the stroller. However, every time we are on the move and Elias is out of the stroller, he wants to push it. He is getting so independent these days. He wants to push the stroller with no help. Well…just picture a tiny boy trying to push a huge stroller. He can’t see where he’s going, and he can’t actually control it. Now picture lots and lots of people trying to get places in the zoo around us….It just doesn’t work. So I try to push the stroller and act like Elias is actually the one pushing it…but he’s smart enough to realize that he is not actually in control. So he gets upset. I know things like this are usually actually pretty short phases in the grand scheme of things. But it’s still frustrating. It’s a constant battle.
So…I was complaining to my brother about this whole situation as we were at the zoo, and he said, “Well have you ever tried just not bringing the stroller?”
In my mind I was like, “Duh…Why didn’t I think of that?”
Sometimes all it takes is a fresh perspective. Thanks, Greg! Next time we go to the zoo I’m going to just bring Elias…and no stroller. We’ll see how he does.