Assisted Treating & Zoo on the Loose

I dropped B-boy off at school the other day and planned to come home and clean. You cannot even imagine how gross this house had gotten.

I’m not really sure what happened, but somehow my car drove straight to the pedicure place instead. By way of the donut shop. The donut shop and then the pedicure place.

Fine, I am sure what happened. Treat yo’ self, you guys.

A book proposal, Halloween, 7th grade sleepover, and a zoo trip down…I justified an hour of R&R. And donuts.

Don’t judge me.

Listen…I know that we’re well into Christmas season (looking at you, Starbucks red cups), but let’s slow our roll. I still haven’t posted about Halloween weekend.

OH, and Thanksgiving. Quit trying to forget about that holiday. It’s a good one.

Assisted Treating

Halloween night we took Beckett trick-or-treating at an assisted living home.

Best. Decision. Ever.

Everyone wanted to nibble on Beck’s cheeks, he got a tiny intro into taking candy from strangers (not to be confused with the times you DON’T UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TAKE CANDY FROM STRANGERS), and some lady only passed out fruit rollups. Win all the way around.

The sweetest part of all, though, was when one of the ladies got up from her seat and tried to head out the front door. She was clearly confused, talking about needing to “head on home”.

I wasn’t sure what we needed to do, but before I could ask, another lady named Francis stepped up. She gently grabbed her friend’s arm and led her back to the table.

She started explaining.

“You are home, remember? This is your home now. We are your family now, remember? I’m Francis, your friend. We sit by each other at breakfast every day, then we head to…..” And hour by hour she went over their schedule. So patient. So loving. It was beautiful.

I foresee a Halloween tradition in our midst.

(Thank heavens. The roller coaster almost ruined the day entirely.)

Zoo on the Loose

One of the perks of working for a theme park is that they love some family outings. When Taylor was in public accounting, they had a lot of fun events for the employees…but it mostly centered around bars and beer and gambling. Not exactly family friendly.

The theme park gig is way more fun for the rest of the Brooks.

Saturday was the family zoo day, complete with free zoo tickets, a catered lunch, and a private meet-and-greet with some of the animals.

Yes, please!

It was all fun and games until, at one of the exhibits, we heard 3 zoo employees talking. They were looking in an open area, pointing at some creature, saying, “UHHHHH…you guys…is he (an animal) supposed to be out here?”

Mind you, this is not the meet-and-greet time. This is a normal zoo exhibit.

No, thank you.

But then came the “show” where we met a penguin, an alligator, an owl, and an armadillo (weirdest animal ever, by the way).

Yes, please!

While the main girl was talking, her sidekick was over in the corner next to all the crates and bags, getting the next animal ready to show.

Except Sidekick kinda had a funny look on her face. Then she had her arm all the way in a duffel bag, feeling around furiously. She’d take her arm out, look really hard in all the corners of the bag, stick her arm back in and feel around, take her arm out and look really hard again…

Um. Ma’am? You’re looking a liiiiiiittle too hard for my comfort. (But, hey, if you’re looking for an animal on the loose…I overheard some folks over at the Texas exhibit…)

She found the animal, I guess. Whatever it was. Either that or they have excellent poker faces.

No, thank you.

 

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All in all, our October was pretty stellar.

A lot happened, including Beckett discovering his nipples for the first time. He was convinced they were “bug bites” that “hurt” and needed a “bandaid”.

So, there’s that, if you were wondering what having a 2 year old is like.

November, I’ve got some things on my to-do list for you, like eating a lot, buying a house, and entering the third trimester. I’ll also pencil in the possibility of discovering more “painful” body parts. Lesson learned.

Let’s do this thang.