I felt that today redeemed my lost attempt at a really fun Easter vacation: we visited Tiger World for the first time! I had planned to take the children on the last day of Easter vacation week, but we were all sick. Tiger World is an accredited, private zoo of exotic animals about one hour north of our home. It is rather expensive at $12 per adult and $10 per child because it receives no government subsidies. We were able to find half-off coupons on Living Social, which made the cost much more reasonable.
The layout was wonderful, the weather a refreshing 70 degrees, the children cheerful, and we could have spent even longer than the four-and-a-half hours we spent there. Next time I'd pack more food so we could stay as long as we wanted. The children spent a tremendous amount of time just running around having healthy free play in grassy areas, in between visiting animals. All the adults remarked what a good set-up the zoo offered for young children and how we'd like to go again.
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| Upon arrival, climbing the lions at the gate: nine children attending (Joseph not in the photo), ages 3 months to 7 years |
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| As I walked into the gift shop to present our tickets, I saw the above feline in the window and thought it was yet one more stuffed animal tiger on display for sale--but, no, it was a real tiger! It was asleep on the other side of safety glass, but startling nonetheless. |
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| Mama and Margaret in sun hats |
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| We packed lunches and ate at the clean and ample picnic benches when we first arrived. |
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| Margaret and a white tiger |
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| Margaret walked in circles around the umbrella pole singing "Ring Around the Rosey" |
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| The sleeping Ti-Liger and the bird |
The most dramatic animal encounter we had today was with a baby bird who could not yet fly. We were looking at the wolves when the children saw a baby bird fall out of a nest. It was unable yet to fly, so flopped around on the ground in fear while the parents fluttered above, squawking in panic. First the children tried to chase the bird, so the bird fled as fast as it could through the dust and stumbled its way into the cage of a ti-liger (it looked like a lion to me!). There the bird found respite and I snapped the above photo of the baby bird resting in front of the drowsy cat because I thought it made for interesting composition. After some moments, the bird must have calmed down and regained its strength because it started moving again. The movement of the now tasty morsel caught the immediate attention of the large cat, whose eyes widened before it stood up quickly. Now the bird knew it was in mortal danger again (from Death by Cat instead of by Affection by Children). The baby bird began hopping as fast as it could away from that cat and it jumped out through the chain link fence into the back woods . . . but with so little time to spare that I saw the cats big black lips actually brush against the metal fence as it tried to eat the bird. Meanwhile, the mama and daddy birds had been flapping and shrieking above this dramatic scene playing out! It was so exciting. Nature in action!
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| Chasing hapless ducks (and later chasing wide-eyed, wild rabbits) |
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| In the gift shop which, naturally, one must walk through to enter and exit the zoo |
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| Ice cream snack before the one-hour drive home |
Nursing mama question for you...I'm so reluctant to do outings like this while I'm nursing b/c of having to stop and feed baby at least every 3hrs. Baby is getting quicker, but still takes at least 15mins to finish a meal. He's decided my nursing cover is fun to wave around like a flag, so being discreet is hard, and while I'm sitting somewhere trying to be quiet and modest the other kids are...??? Any tips? I just try not to go anywhere that will require me to nurse somewhere other than my precious rocker :-)
ReplyDeleteSharon:
ReplyDeleteNursing Mama answer . . .
I understand your concerns! It's always a tough balance.
On this particular day, we were amazingly graced with six adults: me, the other mother, one grandfather, and three grandmothers! So, it was no problem on this day that I sat down to nurse very often.
When I'm on my own . . . it takes planning. You're right, I probably wouldn't go somewhere at which I had all four children and no other adult to help me. I nurse before I leave the house, and often nurse in the car before getting out, keeping all the children locked in their car seats. Places I go . . . when I go to homeschool co-op and church events, there are always other mothers around to whom I could ask them to leap up for me if one of my children needed instant help.
Just now I actually shopped in person at the grocery store, Costco to be exact. That made me anxious because I almost never go grocery shopping in person, I order online. I nursed Joseph right before going and he fell asleep in my pack for the shopping itself. If he had had to nurse while in the store, I probably would have retreated to a display of canned goods, sat on one (I'm serious!), confined the two girls to the shopping cart, and nursed under my cover while trying to entertain/occupy the girls with verbal games, I Spy, singing songs, etc.
I usually have a 6-year-old helper with me and he is a big help when I need to "take a nursing break," as I call them.
And if the worst thing happened and Joseph was screaming to nurse say, while the toddler had to potty RIGHT AWAY, I'd put him in my sling and he'd cry while I tended to the toddler. Sad, but unavoidable occasionally.
Mostly I've had great success nursing on the go and I find it so much easier than if I had to bottle-feed on the go.
As far as the nursing cover and flinging it off, that's a common and normal development with age. It's tough. As the baby does that more, I work on both teaching the baby to tolerate the nursing cover, and also finding places to retreat to nurse, like always "tanking up the baby" in the car before we get out and go into the store. Sitting in back corners of stores or social areas. I can probably count on one hand when I've retreated to a (yucky) public bathroom to nurse, but I have gone out to the car to nurse if there is absolutely nowhere for me to sit.
It's just a tough balance and each outing has to be evaluated for creative solutions!
ooo, good (obvious) idea about nursing in the car before getting everyone out. Since I always nurse before leaving the house I figure he doesn't "need" to eat again when we get where we're going, but that'd buy us more time for a zoo outing or the like. Thanks Katherine!
ReplyDeleteIf I may also chime in... in addition to Katherine's great suggestions, I have learned to nurse and walk/shop/etc at the same time using various baby slings. Necessity is the mother of invention, and I must have figured it out some day when I had no other clear options. At any rate, I have done this in various carriers: ring slings, SSCs, mei tais. I usually have to loosen the carrier somewhat to get the baby to breast level, but once they are latched on, it usually suffices to support them with one hand (maybe sometimes hands free? I am slightly foggy on this at the moment) and I can often still use the other hand if I need to (like to push a shopping cart). I may or may not retighten the carrier, depending on what type it is. Ring slings are easy to loosen and then tighten up again for this purpose. I'll have to ultimately readjust everything when the baby is done nursing to be wearing the sling most correctly and comfortably. Sometimes I have thrown a nursing cover around my neck while doing this for extra modesty insurance, but more often than not, the sling, along with layered clothing, allows me to do this without any skin being visible.
ReplyDeleteThis might not be for everyone, but then again, you may find yourself in such a situation where you will have to try it out! Just throwing it out there as a possible option!
It gets a bit easier with a baby that has good head control and is experienced enough at nursing that they can basically latch themselves on. But I've done it with this most recent baby who is only 6 weeks old now.
Best wishes!
Thanks for those encouraging words! This business of mothering is challenging and inconvenient at times, but so worth it!
ReplyDelete