In case you didn't read A Night Alone, you probably should. Back in those days, I pictured myself with a child that could sleep 10-12 hours straight like other peoples kids. I would get 8 hours of sleep and even have a little me time to book end the nights. I might even be ready to create a new spawn. This is how I'd wake up every day:
FABULOUS! Obviously.
Evan will be 2.5 years old in a week and I can count on one hand the amount of times he's slept for at least 10 hours without disruption. I know what you are thinking.... it's all my fault. I didn't sleep train him, blah blah blah. Well, you are wrong. He's sleep trained. He just choses not to eat enough food during the day. Well, try offering food to this kid when he's busy and this is the response you'll ALWAYS get:
Andy was out of town last night and this is how it went down.
8:30 PM - Toddler is placed in bed after eating 1 hotdog, 1 banana and 8 ounces of milk.
1:30 AM - Toddler fusses, he's HUNGRY. Of course. Grab toddler from bed and give him milk - 8 ounces. Put toddler back to bed.
2:15 AM - MY STOMACH says "Hey, remember me?! Oh you don't? Well, now that you are engaging in physical activity (working out). I'm hungry so feed me because you aren't going to sleep until you do!"
2:16 AM - Make a peanut butter sandwich because that's all I'm capable of doing.
2:18 AM - Go back to bed with sandwich and gatorade because I need to wash it down.
2:25 AM - Finish said meal and lay awake trying to fall back asleep.
5:45 AM - Toddler wakes up again. Soaked in pee and hungry again. Go get milk, a diaper and wipes.
5:50 AM - While changing toddlers outfit and refilling his milk tank, the dog jumps off the bed and stares at me. But I'm tired so this is what it looks like to me:
6:00 AM - Toddler reluctantly goes back to bed. He's had a long night and I want to take him to the zoo without bad attitude. He fell back asleep.
6:05 AM - Dog NEEDS TO GO POTTY AND EAT! Take care of it other wise she'll lay on my face.
7:30 AM - My body finally says "enough, wake up and stop being lazy." This is what I'm doing in bed, however I look much less fabulous.
I know I only have one child and one dog but I'm unwilling to pencil in another living thing into this nighttime parade of needs. Besides, I'm too busy getting myself ready in 10 minutes and trying not to blow something up before Evan wakes up.....
Yesterday, Saturday, I was doing something slightly vain. I was trying on a new swim suit, which did not fit by the way. FYI target juniors sizing is not at all equivalent or even near the women's sizing and I am a woman, not a junior. Anyways, I happened to take a quick look through the egress window and noticed something moving in the leaves. I walked over to take a closer look and it was a BABY BUNNY!!!!! Cottontail to be exact. I have always enjoyed bunnies. There are soft and even cuddly. They are friendly and personable and can be litter trained.
We have gone to "Hoppy Hour" at the humane society several times to watch them play with each other. Andy likes bunnies too.
This one gnawed on his shorts and it was funny!
We have had previous experience with small, wild bunnies. A few years back we found one because Abby was playing with it (she was not trying to kill it).
I was ready to keep it. How can you NOT feel that way? They are so precious!
We didn't know what to do so we brought the bunny back to where Abby found it and left it there. This is not at all what you should do. This one was a little larger and very mobile but probably still needed it's mother. Well.... sadly, a few days later and really early in the morning we heard noise coming outside our window. Andy got up and ran outside to chase a fox away. He saw that it had taken with it, a baby bunny. :( RIP little bun bun.
This time, I was CONVINCED I would do RIGHT by this baby. I call the The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota after we rescued it from the egress window. The said to locate the nest. No big deal, I can try that. Come to find the nest is RIGHT next to the egress window!! Wildlife FAIL. Why is this mother bunny doing this to me! The instructions were as follows: dig a nest close to the old nest and use mama's nesting material to bury the bunny (as they do). Mama bunny comes twice a day at dusk and dawn to place a big threaded X over the nest where the bunny is. If the X is moved, mama came back. If not, mama did not. Check to see if baby is still there.
Bad nesting spot mother bunny.
New nesting spot complete with buried baby.
Immediately in the morning I run out to check and mama has not come back. It had rained all night but the nesting material kept little Foxy (named in memory of baby bun bun) dry and warm! I refuse to give this one up to the foxes. So, we rush baby Foxy over to The Wildlife Rehab Center.
And off baby Foxy is to veterinarian care AND bottles of bunny milk.
It was sad to leave the little bugger because my gosh aren't they cute! I involved Evan in the entire process though and even applied to volunteer there. Who wouldn't want to bottle feed baby animals right?! We hopefully saved little Foxy's life and now we know that a small fence around the sides of the egress window is necessary since mama bunny had a major lapse in nesting judgement!
Taking a toddler out of the house is a challenge, at least my toddler anyways. If you don't have kids here's a trusted tutorial on what life is like: Parenting Illustrated by Crappy Pictures. Last fall we planned on attending my second cousins wedding the weekend after Christmas. We had to abruptly change our plans due to unforeseen circumstances so I picked Orlando! I planned Evan's second trip to SeaWorld!
The flight down was a total nightmare. I "thought" Evan would nap on the plane. He has napped in his car seat before. I was wrong. So very wrong. He screamed for at least an hour. My head was in my hands, silently questioning what I was doing and sort of wishing we were still home. I was trying to keep myself together.
Once the nightmare was over, we were able to get him to his happy place right away: the pool. The following day we were up early and on our way to Discovery Cove.
THIS was our view!!!!
We were ecstatic and Evan was enthralled watching the dolphins! He spent the first part of the morning playing in the warm water. Once I got in, I spent my time with CJ, a bottle nose/common dolphin who was quite the chatterbox! Swimming with him made me feel as though I was flying! At the end, they let Evan join us in the water. I'll let the picture do the talking:
His little mouth couldn't have been opened any wider! We were all in love and I was so thankful that Evan was able to touch them!
Childhood dream to scuba dive-actual scuba license+Discovery Cove SeaVenture= PROBLEM SOLVED!!!
At the end of the day and almost time for the park to close, I didn't want to leave. Before we left, a little moment happened between a dolphin toddler named Finn and a human toddler named Evan:
This day could not have ended on a better note! The animals are so well taken care of and so happy. We all left with smiles on our faces and all I could think of is how I cannot wait to bring Evan back here!
Our second vacation day was spent at SeaWorld. We spent the first part of the morning with the dolphins and that was a little rough for Evan as he's a plan maker, not a plan follower. As a mom, I usually anticipate the worst and hope for the best. He was interested in the dolphins again however he had his own agenda in mind. We took a break to regroup and I was a bit nervous that our penguin encounter would be rough.
Prior to this, we tried practicing with stuffed penguins.
Not too bad but we discussed the whole "don't grab the beak" concept prior to the real deal. Finally, it was time to meet Skippy and Sherlock!
And yes... he did try to ride Skippy. But most importantly, his little heart has now found a love for yet another species. We all fell in love with them! None of us had ever discussed penguins at least not nearly as much as we discuss orca's and dolphins. My entire family couldn't stop talking about them! Andy and I even raced back to SeaWorld (thank you mom for watching Evan's monitor), one hour prior to park close, ran all the way from the entrance to the Antarctica ride and spent the last moment of our day watching the penguins!!
After the penguins we decided to walk over to see if we could see any orca's as we knew Evan's nap time clock was ticking! As luck would have it, we stumbled across a technical rehearsal for One Ocean that quite literally started right at the moment we arrived! Evan has been watching this on DVD for the past year. He was THRILLED! He spent the entire time jumping up and down on Andy's lap! He was over the moon with excitement and promptly crashed for his nap before we even left the gates!
Our last park was Aquatica. I knew this would be a hit as Evan loves the water. It was a great way to cap off our time at SeaWorld. Evan played his heart away in the water while Andy and I randomly snuck away for some adult time.... WATER SLIDES!!!! Evan even stalked out a mallard who quickly left the scene.
At the end of the day another little special thing happened! Evan started trying to walk like a penguin. I KNEW that this experience would stay with him just like the last one and he had expanded his love of animals to include penguins!
The toddler penguin waddle:
SeaWorld has done such a tremendous amount for animals and conservation! The employees take their job seriously, the animals seriously and most of all, SHARING these animals with all of us very seriously! A few people who read my first blog The Real SeaWorld Experience asked me if I'd seen Blackfish. Yes, I did. If your child has an ear infection, who would you talk to? A pediatrician of course. If you need legal advice, who would you speak to? A lawyer. If you want to learn about orca's, dolphins, penguins, sea turtles, sharks and all other sea dwelling creatures, who would you ask? SeaWorld. A $10 movie will not buy you a cheap education and you should question everything! You should do your OWN research and not let someone else do it for you. I guarantee anyone affiliated with SeaWorld parks will answer your questions.
Below is a photo montage of our trip. It is viewable on mobile device via this blog or computer on my youtube station, just not via youtube from a mobile device. FYI :)
You may ask yourself, as I often do, how can I help the ocean when I don't live anywhere near it? First off, visit your local zoo and ask! Most zoo's are more then willing to tell you how you can help and many have volunteer opportunities: Association of Zoo's and Aquariums.
All of these are ideas you can do as a family! We have a zoo membership and visit all the time. The more interactions children have with animals, the more they love them and want to care for the world we all live in. Yes SeaWorld parks also has fun things like games and rides because kids need to expense energy. But at the end of the day, it's all about fostering the relationships between animals and people to secure the future of our planet. Let me take you with us on our SeaWorld parks adventure and I hope you too will fall in love with the animals as we did!
By the way, Evan did not cry one single tear on the flight home. We truly did leave our vacation on top of the world!
Everyone has that one place growing up that makes them the happiest, a secret garden, if you will. A place where there are no bullies or homework or sadness or sickness. My secret garden was the condo in Breezy Point, MN. I call it Brainerd, BRD, Peqout Lakes (home of the famous bobber water tower)!
I was raised going up north almost every weekend in the summer. My father worked at the airport so he brought my mom and I with. I am an only child. My parents purchased a condo right next to Breezy Point Resort. We Minnesotans go up north ALL summer, almost every weekend. It's a way to get away from the busy city life and not have to get on a plane, because that's expensive and why do that once a year when you can go up north EVERY WEEKEND!!!!! We deserve it too. Our winters are tough.
Being "up north" I could be anything I wanted and do anything I wanted to do.. I could pretend to be a marine biologist! I tried to save all the minnows from certain death only to use them as fish bait later. I snorkeled for clams and brought them back to the condo where they spent the weekend surviving in a blow up tank full of lake water. Dad always made me throw them back. I jumped in and out of the pool a million times! I screamed "MARCO...... POLO" at the top of my lungs while playing with my up north friends. I went fishing when dad left me at the condo for a few hours and said "don't fish while I'm gone, you'll catch a bull head." I caught that bullhead and had to wait for a kind fisherman to take it off for me..... Minnesota Nice!!!! I spent many weekends at Paul Bunyan Land and was there for the last weekend that it was open. I brought and still bring my close friends up north.
At 20 years old I found myself getting married and divorced in the span of 3 months. At 21 I decided to work on my night moves, thank you Bob Seger. I met some boys (summer flings) because of my awesome night moves. I made a lot of friends. I introduced Andy to the wonders of Northern Minnesota (his family has a place in northern WI, tisk tisk!!). We spent 7 years dating and going up north. We got married up at Maddens. It was on of the BEST DAYS of my life!! I love it up north. Whenever I think of moving away from Minnesota, I just can't do it. I'd sell my childhood home but I'd never stop going up north. Ever.
So, here is my life. These are the moments that make me the happiest. Growing up and going up north!
Side Bar: NOT free of sickness. In 1993 my family and I were devastatingly ill from Wild Rice Soup at Norway Ridge. We all thought we were going to just die. We didn't and have since been back although it took 15 years to go back to that restaurant again......
In the wake of Blackfish and all the extremists (both for and against SeaWorld), I feel compelled to write about SeaWorld and how it affected me, a normal person.
In 1990, my parents brought me to San Diego and we went to SeaWorld.
For a 9 year old, I was BLOWN AWAY and immediately in love. I fell in love with ANIMALS, almost all of them. I didn't touch the dolphins at the touch pool because I was afraid that I'd scratch them. I spent 10 years regretting it and wishing I would have touched one.
I went home and my room was filled with animals (birds, hamsters, fish). I adopted a humpback whale. I spent hours researching and reading books to understand how to take care of my animals with the best food, living conditions and enrichment. I was nine years old and learning how to research, getting excited about books and loving animals in the best way a 9 year old could.
The Bird Station:
The Fish Station:
Fast forward a really long time (2011) and my husband and I take a trip to Alaska. Obviously, the only thing on my mind was this:
SPEACHLESS!!!!! DREAMS CAME TRUE! 9 Hours on the ocean watching birds (there was a bird watching group on the boat) and all other animals. I fell while running to the front of the boat in Seward to see them. I wanted to shout I LOVE YOU and freak out because they just let us watch them.
BEST. DAY. EVER….. Or so I thought.
Fast forward again (2013) and now I have a 7 month old human being that I am responsible for rearing to be an intelligent, respectful, kind person. We find ourselves at Sea World Orlando.
This activity is safe and he's loving it. Loving it as in, going to jump in with the rays if we let him.
We graduate to a bigger activity. All is well. We are following rules!
This activity is keeping me on my toes slightly…. I'm nervous.
I'm thinking "let's take a photo of him before he freaks out at the cetaceans flying through the air and such." He's 7 months old, that's what I fully expected.
So far so good… Not flipping out. Oh yea, there's a show going on. Hopefully he hasn't pooped or isn't hungry but I'm ready for those things like a thoroughbred at the gate.
The end of the show came and this happened:
HE'S WAVING TO THE ORCA'S!!!! He has never waved at anything in his life! I cried. I cried because it was touching and I realized that my role/job is to ensure that he respects animals and the environment. He doesn't need to love them like I do, but he needs to respect them.
We came home and I thought he'd forget about the orca's but I was wrong.
At 20 months old, he walks over to the DVD player, picks out One Ocean and brings it back to me. He jumps into my lap and we sit and watch the entire thing.
Evan is turning two in May and we are taking him back to Orlando in April and back to SeaWorld. This is what SeaWorld does along with everything else that they do. They promote the love and respect for animals in generations of human beings. They remind us that we don't need to be orca trainers to make a difference. Pick up that lost dog on the street and help find it's owner. Plant a plant that's good for the environment and maybe even something that bares food for you (I tried it last year, it was actually fun said the plant killer). Teach your kids how they can positively affect their environment and how to CARE for it. That's what SeaWorld taught me and what I can pass on to my child.
Side Bar: If someone made a movie of my life and all the things I've done wrong, it would be absolutely horrifying. It's so easy to point out what people, institutions and organizations have done wrong as opposed to celebrating what they do RIGHT and how far we've all come.
Second Side Bar: I'm absolutely shocked staring at the stats at how many people are reading this. I wanted to put my experience in one place for a few reasons. 1-To remind myself how I'm going to explain the importance of SeaWorld to my son when he gets older. 2- So that others can know that it's OK not to side with main stream media. SeaWorld isn't paying me.
The comments below are a safe place for people to share positive feelings for the parks and their conservation/education efforts free of criticism and negativity!
