{THAT mom, and a zoo trip}

The boys had their first trip to the zoo yesterday.

And I became that mom.

You know, the mom a lot of us used to judge before we had kids {or maybe we still do}. The one that drags her toddler, kicking and screaming, onto a ride, or Santa's lap, or insert possibly scary situation here.

Yeah...that was me yesterday at the zoo.

The whole car ride there, and pretty much the entire time we were at the zoo leading up to the infamous train ride, it was all Landon could talk about. Not "I want to see the elephants!" like Ben. Not "I want to feed the giraffes!"

Nope..."I want to ride the train!" 

But Dan and I knew that the minute we actually went to get on the train, his tune would change.

And boy did it ever.

The second we went to step foot onto the train, his 40 lb toddler body went into flight mode, pushing his heels into the sidewalk, fighting me with all his might. But I got him on there. And I held him while he flailed and cried, tears streaming, for what felt like 10 minutes until the train started.

Yep...I'm that mom. 

We were near the front of the train, and I could feel the burning of eyes in the back of my head. I turned around at one point to see if Ben was OK {he was sitting with my sister-in-law} and there was a woman behind her giving me the giant side eye of disapproval.

You are ruining him! I could see it in her look of disapproval. Or maybe she was just annoyed that a screaming three year old was going to ruin her ride.

I looked over at my mother-in-law and she reassured me that I was doing the right thing. So I stuck to my guns.

And you know what? The second that train started moving, the tears stopped. Well, his did. And then I shed a few. But not enough to keep both of us from enjoying that short train ride around the zoo. I held him tight on my lap and told him how proud I was of him.

I don't want him to be scared of the world, of new things.

I want him to explore and learn and grow.

A big parenting triumph that I'm hoping will have lasting effects. 

But I still won't force him to sit in Santa's lap. Or that creep Easter Bunny. I don't really want to scrapbook a photo of my child crying in some stranger's lap.

{And another bonus...I did get quite a workout from that 10 minutes of toddler wrangling. My arms are sore today.}

And just to show that our zoo trip was mostly fun and fear free, here are a few photos...

Hard to see it but there is an elephant in the upper right corner :)

 

I think the boys' favorites were the ring-tailed lemurs {Ben loooved them} and the penguins. That might have just a little bit to do with the fact that they love the Penguins of Madagascar show. :)