Tag Archives: Bronx Zoo

Maybe

Famous last words. I’m out of practice – two days without kids, and I’ve forgotten the “verboten” words. One of which is “maybe.”

But before I expound on the latest Chloe incident, a few words about the wedding weekend. My husband and I had a great time – a relaxing 48 hours among adults, good food and celebration. The most touching moment for me came when my friend, the bride, and her father had their dance. It moved me enormously, and I thought of my own father, and how much I still miss him, and how much I wish he was still alive to enjoy our beautiful Chloe and Sophie.

The girls had a wonderful time with their Grammy, of course. Nonstop activity – the Bronx Zoo, the Guggenheim Museum, picnics and playgrounds. They were happy to see us upon our return and we had a lovely reunion evening. That is, until Chloe started asking to go to Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream after dinner. There was no reason not to say no, the girls had their ice cream treats earlier in the day at Central Park. But instead of making it unequivocally clear that there’d be no ice cream after dinner, I responded “maybe” to her request.

Stupid. When we were almost done with dinner, she started in. “Can we get ice cream? Can we?” My husband replied no, and Chloe said, “But Mommy said ‘maybe!'” Big mistake. Even though I had made it clear that maybe did not mean yes, and could very well mean no, she was holding out for the former. And when I confirmed that I had changed my mind from maybe to no, the tears started to flow. “I hate your mind!” she exclaimed, careful not to indict.

In perhaps a sign of increasing maturity, she calmed down rather quickly, however. And the rest of the evening proceeded smoothly and happily (as evidenced by the silly face above). It’s good to be home with the girls; they make us whole.

A Visit to the Zoo

It’s a rarity, but the weather cooperated with our plans yesterday. It was supposed to be a crappy day, but it ended up being glorious. And because the weather reports were predicting rain until the last minute, we were one of the relative few families to visit the Bronx Zoo, which made our excursion all the more enjoyable.

The girls are channeling insects in these photos, inspired by the real thing. Sophie loved the birds and the reptiles. Chloe and her friend loved the rodents and sea lions.

Personally, I was partial to the butterflies, because I got some great shots with our recently purchased camera. The lens on that thing is a lot stronger than I realized.

The girls also took a ride on the merry-go-round. I’ve never seen Sophie laugh and smile so much – she was radiant as she rode atop the preying mantis.

It was nice to get away for the afternoon – and the best part about it was the surprising sunshine. It’s so easy to get caught up in the weekend race to go to the supermarket, do the gardening, clean the house, chauffering the kids around town – all the annoying chores – that weeks go by before we realize that we haven’t done anything of substance as a family.

Here’s to spring and fun family moments! And to butterflies, rats, snakes and tigers…