I'm going to make it after all

Look everyone! It's Saturday night and I'm still standing. My appreciation for single parents just keeps growing as the days continue.

Most of the day actually went really well. Good morning wake-up at 6:45 AM - which is late for the kids. A nice breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast and watermelon. Marcus took his morning nap, Alya read books, I got cleaned up and we all went to the Milwaukee County Zoo.

Bump number one - I only took the single seat stroller, thinking Alya would be willing to walk a lot of the time. "I hold you!" were the first words out of her mouth as we walked onto the zoo grounds. One would hope that phrase meant, "Hold my hand," or "I want to give you a hug," not, "Carry me for the entire time we're at the zoo." You can guess which one it actually meant.

The zoo was a grand time. Started with a couple of penguins, moved to the apes, and then the reptile & aquatic house. That last location was my first real break for my arms.

The reptile & aquatic house was possibly Alya's favorite stop because she liked looking at the very large fish. However, they did scare he a little, so if you ask her which is her favorite, it won't be remembered.

We then saw the American Badger, who was out and about. Checked out the camels, although Alya was a little more interested in the sky glider. Passed the giraffes and went into the Big Cat House.

Right before the official start of the bedtime routine, I asked Alya what her favorite animal was at the zoo, and she said it was the tiger. That surprised me, because it just lay there and wasn't active at all today. But tigers are quite impressive, even when lying down and that is exactly what happened with Alya.

The other bedtime surprise was that she remembered the name of a particularly active Siamang monkey at the zoo. We were watching this little fellow climbing some branches and playing with a length of hose, when a woman came up and told us the name of the monkey and age and few other facts. Alya remembered that name tonight - and I still don't know what it is. Whip-crack smart my little one is.

In case you were wondering, Marcus had a good time at the zoo as well. He was mainly people watching, although animals were catching his eye as well. I never noticed him falling asleep, so it kept his interest for the three hours we were there. Cool stuff.

At any rate, we ate lunch at the zoo and then Alya and Marcus fell asleep on the way home for the long afternoon nap. And I could have used one too. Except by the time I got everything cleaned up and lunch eaten, I didn't have the ability to fall asleep. Should of napped though as the evening went rough.

Marcus woke up first, but only by about 10 minutes or so. Both kids were initially in great moods, but then Alya started getting a little tired while Marcus went the other direction and got riled up. In fact, he was working on his brotherly duty of annoying the heck out of his sister.

I moved them into the kitchen where Alya was doing her large floor puzzles while I helped and kept Marcus distracted.

Wow, the evening is blurring together even now.

Bump number two came around when I had finished getting dinner ready. Kraft Mac & Cheese, peaches and a veggie mix of corn, carrots, peas and string beans. Marcus ate very well, but Alya....

Well she was engrossed in a Dora DVD that I had put on before starting dinner. Didn't realize that the stupid thing ran over 90 minutes! And Dora episodes are on the long side too. So when the episode was wrapping up as I got dinner on the table, my thought was "Excellent, now we can move right into supper."

Unfortunately, I was unaware that there was another episode to go and it kicked off before I could turn off the DVD. This was not a happy time for Alya or myself. I tried to fight the battle, but lost and Alya got to watch that episode while I fed Marcus. And cleaned up Marcus. And started getting Marcus's pajamas on while thinking, "When is this going to freakin' end?"

Did I mention that Marcus was riled and out to get his sister?

The last (as far as I was concerned) episode was almost at the end when Marcus crawled over to the tv and turned off the DVD player.

Yeah, you probably can figure out what happened next.

Bump number three - yelling, crying, more crawling around trying to increase chaos levels.

The end result. Our DVD player does resume where the DVD left off from last time. Alya had hot dog, veggies and peaches for dinner in front of the tv while watching Zoboombafo. And Marcus went to bed.

After hardly eating dinner, Alya was ready for bed, too. No fussing, no fighting, just go back to her room, get changed into pajamas, read a few books and off to sleep.

All I had to do now is clean the house, do the dishes, eat some proper dinner, and figure out how to relax. And for me that was to bake some brownies. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to try them out now.

Be seeing you,

Jon