Ten Days with a 2-Year-Old
I recently spent a very busy ten days with my 2-year-old granddaughter. She was so much fun, yet so much work. We went on outings, we played with toys, we went on walks, we read stories and we ate. Actually, it turned out that food and food preparation took a large portion of our time together.
At the beginning of our week, I took her to the zoo. It is hot here, so we needed to go early. She took her time eating breakfast, but then we got dressed and ready to go. I made sure I wiped her with sunscreen, then I loaded the car with her stroller, an extra diaper, her hat, her security blanket, her pacifier and some cold water. We were only going to be gone a couple of hours so I never thought about packing snacks.
That was a serious mistake.
After an enjoyable hour of looking at the ducks, flamingos, cheetahs and tigers plus feeding the parakeets in the birdhouse, we headed for the snake house. Unfortunately, there was a group of about 8 mothers with toddlers and babies and strollers and GOLDFISH all visiting on the porch of the snake house. As we threaded our way through the crowd, my sweet little girl turned into a crying, whining miserable human being.
While looking at the first snake exhibit, she started crying for “fish.” I took her to the next window, which was an aquarium full of fish and showed her the big fish and the little fish, but she just kept crying “fish.” (I realized after we got home that she had been crying for Goldfish and not real, swimming fish. Sometimes it takes grandmothers a little longer to understand two-year-olds.)
Finally I asked her if she was ready to go home and she said, “yes.”
After walking back through the mother/baby gang, I tried to show her the bears.
“Do you want to see the bears?”
“NO!”
“Do you want to go home?”
“YES!”
“Do you want to see the alligators?”
“NO!”
Do you want to go home?”
“YES!”
I finally got the message and pushed her back through the exhibits, out the gate, up the hill and to the car.
Luckily, she enjoyed watching the movie “Eloise” in the car on our way home.
For the rest of our visit, I packed lots of “pretzel rods” for any of our outings! We went to parks and playgrounds and splash pads and when she asked for “pretzels,” I had them available.
Bergfeld Park Splash Pad
Children’s Park, Tyler, TX
Children’s Park, Tyler, TX
Children’s Park, Tyler, TX
