The Zoo

This weekend I decided that we were going to the zoo. Carl knew there was no changing my mind because I had been wanting to go since May. But, with the hot weather we had during the summer, we decided we better wait. So, when I realized that Saturday was going to be nice, a trip to the zoo was on the agenda. That morning before we left, as Carl was planting the two Weeping Willows that we bought for our yard, he cut his leg. The cut looked small, but deep. And it bled. A lot. After putting some heavy duty bandages on the wound, we decided that we didn't want to deal with the unimaginable emergency room bill for stitches, so we just decided to let the cut heal on its own. We went ahead with the zoo plan, partly because we had already told Cale that we were going and partly because we wanted to go eat somewhere good afterwards. A good thing about Carl and I is that we pretty much think alike: food. restaurants. eating.

We were excited to get to the zoo because it was Cale's first trip. Well, first trip to the Little Rock Zoo. It's always a little disappointing when you go to that zoo because it seems like half the animals are in hiding. But, Cale still enjoyed seeing what animals were in view. A few minutes after arriving, we heard a train whistle. We pretty much lost Cale at that moment. He left thoughts of animals, and entered into "trainland". He begged and begged to ride that train every time it came around...and since it's a pretty short route...it came around a lot!

About an hour into the trip, Carl looked down at his leg and it was sopping wet with blood. He shoe, sock, and pants leg were completely covered. Luckily we brought other bandages so we tried to inconspiculously doctor his wound and continue our trip. Abou 10 minutes later, the same thing happened again. At this point we realized we better go and that maybe walking around at the zoo was not the smartest thing we could've chosen to do with Carl's cut leg.

Now I knew that Cale had to ride that train before we left. He was obsessed with it. His every thought was train related. It was all he truly cared about. The sign said that it cost 2 tokens to ride the train and that the train ran until 4:00. Well, wouldn't you know it was 3:35 and I didn't have any tokens. So, since Carl was bleeding I told him to stay with Cale and I began to "book it" across the park to get some tokens. I bet a pregnant lady has never moved so fast at the zoo. I think people must have thought I really needed to go to the bathroom or something because I got some strange looks. By the time I got to the entrance of the park, I was sweating and feeling tired...to say the least. I bought some tokens and began running all the way back. I just knew I would be too late. Amazingly somehow I made it back in time. As Cale and I were about to get on the train, I noticed another sign that said, "2 tokens or $2.00". Lovely. I could've just given cash to the conductor instead of making the awkward "pregnant girl huffing and puffing" jog across the whole zoo and back. Oh well, I got some exercise and Cale got to ride on the train which in his eyes was one of the best things he's ever done. As we were getting off the train, a little boy in front of us was screaming and crying. Cale loudly bragged, "I'm not crying!". We were a little embarrassed (hoping the boy's mom didn't hear), but also a little glad because he was right. He didn't cry one bit as he got off the train!